THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (Warners/MGM) will shatter all the December records it was expected to shatter, but based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, its projected $85M weekend is somewhat soft, considering that it had $37.5M on Friday alone.  That’s about a 2.25 weekend multiple, considerably lower than The Avengers (2.57) or Skyfall (2.77) […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the weekend box office will largely be in line with Friday’s results.  Both NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) and SINGLE MOMS CLUB (Lionsgate) barely budged on Saturday from their Friday starts, with Speed up $300K and Moms up $100K.  That will push Speed down to 3d place for the […]

  Despite the expected Saturday surge from Big Hero 6, DUMB & DUMBER TO (Red Granite/Universal) looks like it should hold on for the weekend win.  Dumb pulled in $14.4M on Saturday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, which was up 2% from Friday, and should give the comedy $37M for the weekend. BIG HERO […]

  Both of the weekend’s major openings cost too much for the amount they’re currently earning.  MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (TSG/20th) has production/marketing costs of $225M+, and preliminary numbers at Deadline have its opening day at roughly $9M (including $1.2M from Thursday night).  That suggests a $25-27M weekend, which would be an even […]

  Hollywood offered slim competition to the second weekend of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney) and the latest comic book spectacular will easily win the weekend with what Deadline currently estimates will be $60M.  That’s a 59% drop from last weekend, steeper than the 55% for the first Guardians, even though Vol 2 […]

  The major studios didn’t try to seriously challenge HALLOWEEN (Blumhouse/Miramax/Universal) on its titular weekend, and despite a 69% Friday-to-Friday drop to $10.3M according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it will easily win its 2nd weekend with around $33M.  At this rate, it could top $175M in the US, which would put it neck-and-neck with […]

> Deadline is reporting a fairly spectacular Saturday for THE LORAX (Universal), considering the size of its Friday:  $32M, representing more than an 80% increase from the day before.  As a point of comparison, Horton Hears A Who! increased only 40% on its second day of release.  If this number holds, it puts Lorax in […]

  Early Saturday boxoffice numbers at Deadline show no great surprises for the weekend’s offerings.  Any hope that EVIL DEAD (TriStar/Sony/FilmDistrict) would have the staying power of a Mama faded with the demon-filled gorefest’s 24% Saturday drop (although it should be noted that Saturdays in general will start looking lower with studios now treating “Friday” […]