Considering the spotty box office record of the DC movie franchise, it was something of a risk to place AQUAMAN (DC/Warners) at the center of the holiday market, but the bet is paying off, at least to an extent.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, opening day for Aquaman was technically $27.7M, although that […]

  There don’t appear to be many surprises in the Friday box office numbers, based on preliminary estimates at Deadline.  As usual, ticket sales declined on Thanksgiving itself (particularly for family movies), then surged on Friday, and the results were largely in line with Wednesday’s form. MOANA (Disney Animation) wasn’t able to keep up its […]

  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 […]

  DESPICABLE ME 3 (Illumination/Universal) will have no trouble holding the lead at the box office over the 5-day July 4th weekend.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $28.6M (including $4.1M from Thursday night), which could give it $85M by Sunday and $125M by Tuesday.  That’s still on the low side for the […]

  GODZILLA (Warners/Legendary) is proving to be a somewhat frontloaded hit, with preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere showing a Saturday drop of 15-20%, down from $38.5M on Friday to $32-32.5M.  If that holds, it will be a much heavier fall than the ones for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (down 6% to $34.7M) or […]

  If preliminary numbers at Deadline hold, the Weekend 2 drop for CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (Marvel/Disney) will be in line with comparable superhero epics.  Its second Friday looks like $19.5M, which would be down about 74% from last week’s opening day.  That compares to Friday-to-Friday drops of 75% for Avengers: Age of Ultron, 71% […]

> After a nice Friday bump, TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON took a small step backwards yesterday, with a lower % of increase than either of its predecessors had on their first Saturdays.  As Mitch Metcalf noted in his piece on holiday weekend boxoffice, films in general should benefit from smaller than usual declines today, […]

  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 […]