THE REVENANT (Regency/20th) is showing impressive strength in its first day of wide release, after 2 strong weeks at NY/LA arthouses.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give it $14M+ on Friday, putting it surprisingly into 1st place and confirming that Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the few “movie stars” these days who actually sells tickets.  […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #32 of 2013 looks like a decent $148 million for the top 12 films, up 11% from the average for this weekend the past few years. None of the openers this weekend look like they will finish with over $100 million domestic, although We’re the Millers has the best shot […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #2 of 2013 is on pace for $124 million, identical to last weekend and up slightly from the same weekend the last few years.  The three wide-release films this weekend performed pretty much as forecast Wednesday, while Lincoln is the big surprise among the holdovers thanks to the Oscar nominations, […]

  As will be noted endlessly by the studio and its mouthpieces all weekend, KUNG FU PANDA 3 (DreamWorks Animation/20th) is the first in the series to open in January, after June and May openings for the previous chapters.  Nevertheless, DWA and 20th didn’t choose that day with the idea of earning less, and the […]

  BLACK PANTHER (Marvel/Disney) is, in a word, colossal.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, opening day was $76.6M (including $25.2M from Thursday night), which would make it the #8 opening day of all time, and the highest non-Avengers opening day in Marvel history.  Let’s remember, though, that it’s impossible to tell from opening day […]

  Its studio did everything in its corporate power to keep the quality of TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT (Huahua/Paramount) from infecting ticket sales, preventing any reviews from appearing until the projectors had started on the movie’s first paid screenings.  But audiences knew what was coming, and in the US, Transformers 5 will be by far […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #30 of 2015 looks like $148 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, equaling the norm for this weekend and above last year’s weekend. Opening at 3,723 theaters Friday, Pixels from Sony is on track for a $25.0 million opening three-day weekend (below our $37.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). The film is pacing toward a slightly […]

Weekend #46 is on pace to exceed the multi-year average for this weekend by 17% — not as high as we forecast earlier this week but still very good.  The final Twilight film in the series is on pace to open with $135 million this weekend, below our forecast and a shade below the previous […]