RIO 2 (20th/Blue Sky) appears to be losing altitude, according to preliminary box office numbers at Deadline.  The sequel reportedly climbed 30-34% on its second day of release, from $11.9M on Friday to $16M or less.  That would be a big drop from the 69% bump the first Rio had on its initial Saturday […]

  Note:  Because of the holiday weekend and consequent strong Sunday, weekend-to-weekend drops will look softer than usual. OPENINGS:  It was a weak battle of newcomers, with A WALK IN THE WOODS (Broad Green) ahead at $8.4M ($10.5M with Wed-Thurs earnings) vs. THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED (Europa/RED) at $7.1M.  Walk compares well to the $8.5M opening […]

  Franchises have been dropping like flies this year, but one brand name that still works is Marvel.  Its latest extravaganza DOCTOR STRANGE (Marvel/Disney) had an opening day of at least $32M according to preliminary numbers at Deadline (including $9.4M from Thursday night), which should give it a $80M+ weekend.  As the kick-off to a […]

  After two weeks of sloth, Hollywood started rolling out its pre-holiday product.  The weekend’s easy winner will be SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (Sony Animation/Columbia/Sony), which had a $12.6M Friday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, including $3.5M from Thursday night.  That should give it a $35M+ weekend.  Projections after that are tough, because there […]

      Mitch Metcalf will have a full report on boxoffice actuals later today, but the morning’s news is that THE AVENGERS continues to fly high over all expectations.  On the Monday after weekend boxoffice numbers are estimated, studios often find that they had “accidentally” pushed their estimates just enough to get over the […]

> 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 […]

  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, MAN OF STEEL (Warners) dropped 18% on its second full day of release to $36.1M.  That’s a good but not exceptional hold for a mega-opening; some recent comparisons are a 10% slip for Iron Man 3, 9% for The Great Gatsby, and an 18% decline for Fast & […]

  The odds are strong that on Sunday morning, TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount) will claim a $100M weekend, the first of 2014–but we won’t really know until Monday whether the movie has hit that mark.  According to reports at Deadline and elsewhere, Transformers 4 fell sharply on Saturday from its $41.6M opening day, in the […]