CARS 3 (Pixar/Disney) will have a strong Fathers Day, which in turn will make its weekend multiple look good, but it’s off to a disappointing start.  In preliminary numbers at Deadline, its opening day is pegged at $19.1M (including $2.8M from Thursday night), down 25% from the first day of 2011’s Cars 2 ($25.7M), […]

  Expectations were low for the holiday weekend’s expensive new openings, and that’s proving to be accurate.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it was the low-budget THE PURGE:  ELECTION YEAR (Blumhouse/Universal) that led the group on Friday with $13.4M (including $3.6M from Thursday night), better than the $13M opening day for Anarchy, the last […]

> According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) had an exceptional Saturday bump of almost 40%, giving it $26.2M for the day and a probable weekend of $63-65M.  If these numbers hold, Hunger Games would have the #5 2nd weekend of all time, behind only Avatar, The Dark Knight, Shrek 2 and […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline (which, it should be noted, were fairly overoptimistic last night), Saturday’s results were in line with Friday’s lead.  MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (Disney/Pixar) will easily take the weekend after a decent 20% Saturday bump, for what should be a $45M weekend, down only 45% from opening weekend–a better performance than […]

  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 […]

  Allaying concerns about word of mouth, LUCY (Universal) held quite well in its 2d day of release, down 10% from Friday to $15M+ (better than some of the summer’s blockbusters, which fell 15% or more), according to preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere.  That should give it a weekend of $43M+.  (The studios, as […]

  The stretch of box-office beginning in mid-August is one of the weakest of the year, and this weekend’s arrivals did nothing to change that tradition.  WAR DOGS (RatPac/Warners) had the best of the low starts, with $5.4M on Friday (including $1.3M from Thursday night) according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  That may give it […]

  THE DARK TOWER (MRC/Columbia/Sony) will probably win the weekend, but in unimpressive fashion.  It had a $7.7M opening day (including $1.8M from Thursday night), putting it on track for a $19M weekend.  The production budget was reportedly kept reasonable in the $60Ms, but Sony gave it an A-level marketing campaign, which will put total […]