GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) held strongly on Saturday despite its massive opening day.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, the outer space superhero romp dropped about 15% from Friday (which included $11.2M from Thursday night shows) to $32M.  That’s a better Day 2 hold than Transformers: Age of Extinction, Godzilla or X-Men: Days of […]

  After its history-making $120.5M opening day, there were two pre-existing Saturday models that STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Lucasfilm/Disney) could have followed.  The final Harry Potter was so front-loaded that it crashed by 53% from Friday to Saturday.  On the other hand, Jurassic World gently declined by 15%, similar to the 14% drop for […]

  THE MUMMY (Perfect World/Universal) is a disaster, although the studio and its minions will try to spin otherwise through the course of the weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it earned $12M on opening day ($2.7M of it from Thursday night), which puts it in line for a $30M weekend and a US […]

  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 […]

  In the bygone movie palace days Quentin Tarantino worships, exclusive “roadshow” engagements of major Hollywood releases sometimes ran for months before the films spread nationwide.  The super-hyped 70mm release of his THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Weinstein) was originally scheduled for a 2-week run, but that was swiftly cut down by half, and then to 6 […]

  Despite a trio of new entries as competition, BEAUTY & THE BEAST (Disney) wasn’t expected to have any trouble staying in control of its 2d weekend, and it didn’t.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have Friday at $21.2M, down 67% from opening day last week.  That’s only an OK hold, compared to the drops of […]

  Despite the arrivals of a quartet of newcomers, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney/Marvel) appears in the preliminary numbers at Deadline to be having no trouble keeping its lead for a third consecutive weekend.  Its $10M Saturday was down only about 40% from last week, and should give it a $26M weekend, lifting its […]

> THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) continues to overperform.  Based on preliminary Saturday numbers at Deadline, it’s headed for a $21.7M weekend and a total so far of $335.7M, a spectacular 35% decline for a blockbuster in its 4th weekend (and even better than it sounds, because last weekend included the Good Friday holiday).  If it […]