Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #46 of 2013 looks like $119 million for the top 12 films. Opening at 2,024 theaters Friday, The Best Man Holiday from Universal grossed $10.7 million Friday and is on track for a $31.1 million opening weekend (well above the $21.5 million ShowbuzzDaily forecast). The film is pacing toward a very good three-day […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #26 of 2014 looks like $172 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 9% below the norm for this weekend and 6% below the same weekend last year as the lackluster summer 2014 rolls on.   Opening at 4,233 theaters, Transformers: Age of Extinction from Paramount grossed $41.1 million through Friday […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #5 of 2015 looks like $84 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, somewhat above the norm for this weekend but not as strong as our optimistic forecast.   Opening at 2,893 theaters Friday, Project Almanac from Paramount is on track for an $8.2 million opening three-day weekend (well below our $16.5 million […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #36 of 2015 looks like $63 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, actually fairly good versus the norm for the dreadful Labor Day weekend (see track below). Opening at 1,960 theaters Wednesday, A Walk in the Woods from Broad Green Pictures is on track for a $7.7 million opening three-day weekend and $9.7 […]

  The most interesting box office story of the weekend is WARCRAFT (Legendary/Universal).  It’s a dud in the US, with $11M on Friday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, which with its frontloaded fan audience probably means a $25M or so weekend and a domestic total that may not reach $75M.  That’s not much on […]

This is a well-designed weekend for Hollywood, with a trio of sensibly-budgeted franchise titles all drawing audiences from their mostly separate target demos.  The Friday winner, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, was FIFTY SHADES DARKER (Universal), with $20M ($5.7M of it from Thursday night).  That’s about 2/3 of the $30.3M opening day for Fifty […]

  BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was a high-risk bet, with roughly $300M in production and worldwide marketing wagered on an extremely serious 164-minute sequel to a 35-year old film that only became legendary after it was itself a sizable flop in theatres.  Reportedly, the bulk of that investment rested with Alcon, while Sony (international) and […]

  By superhero movie standards, SHAZAM (DC/New Line/Warners) was moderately priced, with around $225M in production/marketing costs.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline put its opening day at $20M (including $5.9M from Thursday), and although that’s a cut below comic book blockbusters like Captain Marvel ($61.7M), Spider-Man: Homecoming ($50.8M) or Wonder Woman ($38.2M), it’s solidly in line with […]