Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #3 of 2014 looks like $156 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up 33% to 43% from the comparable weekends the past few years. Opening at 2,663 theaters Friday, Ride Along from Universal grossed $14.5 million Friday, putting the buddy comedy on track for a $39.5 million opening three-day weekend (way above […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #48 of 2014 looks like $148 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 18% the norm for Thanksgiving weekend ($180 million) and down 24% from the same weekend last year.  Pretty weak. Opening at 3,654 theaters, Penguins of Madagascar from Fox and DreamWorks Animation is on track for a $26.9 million opening […]

  GET OUT (Blumhouse/Universal) is the latest hit from the prolific low-budget horror production company that still has Split in the market, off to a fast start according to preliminary numbers at Deadline with $10.5M on Friday (including $1.8M from Thursday night).  Unlike most titles in the genre, Get Out also boasts terrific reviews (an […]

> The third weekend of 2012 is better than the same weekend last year, but it’s a fairly mediocre weekend looking at a broader historical context.  Underworld Awakening is leading the charge at #1, but Red Tails is not too far behind.    Underworld Awakening is coming in just under forecast, pulling in $9.4 million […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #33 of 2013 looks like an okay $120 million for the top 12 films, up 6% from the average for this weekend the past few years but down 6% from last year’s comparable weekend.  Opening at 2,933 theaters Friday, Lee Daniels’ The Butler from Weinstein grossed $8.3 million Friday and is on track […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #42 of 2013 looks like a pretty weak $93 million for the top 12 films, down 18% from the average for the same weekend the past few years. Opening at 3,157 theaters Friday, Carrie from Sony Pictures grossed $6.5 million Friday and is on track for $14.9 million opening weekend […]

  THE UPSIDE (STX/Lantern) survived the wreckage of the Weinstein Company bankruptcy, and found an opening between the end of the holiday movie season and next week’s MLK weekend, poking through with what preliminary numbers at Deadline put at a Friday-winning $7M (including $1.1M from Thursday night).  That should propel it to a weekend win […]

  After AVENGERS: ENDGAME (Marvel/Disney) torched the record books last weekend, the remaining question was whether it would have the stamina to challenge the biggest records of them all, The Force Awakens in the US ($936.7M) and Avatar worldwide ($2.79B).  It’s not clear after Friday whether this weekend will answer that in a definitive way.  […]