Franchises are the lifeblood of Hollywood, so it has to chill studios to see three of those entries falter in a single 2-weekend period, especially since the stakes are higher for this week’s arrivals than last week’s Neighbors 2. Based on the preliminary $27M Friday number at Deadline, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (TSG/20th) is running almost […]

  It’s shaping up to be a close race at the box office this weekend, and with the result likely to come down to performance on Sunday, we may not know the winner for sure until final numbers are issued on Monday.  HIDDEN FIGURES (20th) was the clear winner on Friday, with preliminary numbers at […]

  All this summer’s box office needed for burial was a shovel, and Hollywood provided that with a Labor Day line-up devoid of any genuinely wide new releases.  The result is going to be ugly, except for a few hardy holdovers. The widest release of the weekend isn’t new at all:  it’s the one-week 901-theatre […]

  OCEAN’S EIGHT (Village Roadshow/Warners) wasn’t expected to be a blockbuster, and its reported production budget of $70M was in keeping with that, although the A-level Warners marketing campaign will raise the price.  It’s performing at the high end of expectations with a $15.9M Friday (including $4M from Thursday night) according to preliminary numbers at […]

  The enduring respect and admiration for Get Out, and its own enthusiastic reviews, are pushing Jordan Peele’s US (Blumhouse/Perfect World/Universal) way past expectations.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, opening day was $28.6M (including $7.4M from Thursday night), which means that in one day, Us has already earned more than 85% of Get Out‘s […]

> Deadline has preliminary numbers for Saturday and the weekend, and any worries that THE HELP would suffer from front-loading are out the window.  Rather amazingly, the picture seems to have climbed more than 25% from Friday to Saturday, and it seems likely to get near $25M for the weekend and $35M since its opening […]

  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE POSSESSION (Lionsgate) is still on top with Saturday’s boxoffice counted, perhaps finding an extra $1M or so at the end of the 4-day weekend for $22-23M, which would be $2-3M higher than last year’s Labor Day #1, The Help (in its 4th weekend).  LAWLESS (Weinstein Company)  might […]

  ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) took in another $5.1M on Thursday, down a fairly standard 37% from its Wednesday opening (This Is the End dropped 43% on its first Thursday, while We’re the Millers fell 31%).  With $13.2M in the bank, he studio is predicting $30M over the Fri-Sun weekend, although $25-27M may […]