Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2015 looks like $143 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above the norm for the fourth weekend of the year, which usually struggles to get above $100 million.  (See complete weekend track below.)  All credit goes to American Sniper, which is truly extraordinary.  As for the […]

  Hollywood generally has little interest in opening films against the Super Bowl, and to the extent it participates, it tries to counterprogram the game by aiming at the young female demographic.  Thus we have a PG-13 horror movie and a YA fantasy-romance this weekend, but neither is finding much of an audience. RINGS (Paramount) […]

> The fifth weekend of 2012 is much better than the same weekend last year, but it’s still somewhat below an “average” weekend for this time of year, looking at the past four years.  Chronicle and The Woman in Black are battling for #1, with each trying to make it to a $20 million opening […]

>Cars 2 exceeds its forecast, but will it hold up?  Bad Teacher also blows past its forecast, driving the weekend up 16% over the same weekend last year. Cars 2 opened with $25.4 million on Friday, and it looks like the Pixar sequel will gross $74 million from Friday-Sunday.  The film is headed for $195 […]

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 […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #24 of 2013 looks like a really good $192 million for the top 12 films, not quite the $200+ million we forecast but still up 27% from the average for this weekend the past few years. Man of Steel is opening exactly at our expectations, while most of the holdovers […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2014 looks like $94 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, within a few percentage points of comparable weekends the past few years. Opening at 2,753 theaters Friday, I, Frankenstein from Lionsgate/Summit grossed a tiny $2.8 million Friday, putting the film on track for a $7.6 million opening three-day weekend (way […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #35 of 2014 looks like $84 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 1% below the norm for this weekend ($85 million). Opening at 2,639 theaters, As Above/So Below from Universal grossed $3.2 million Friday and is on track for a $9.3 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our $10.5 million […]