Deadline is reporting a preliminary opening day of around $75M (including $25M from Thursday night) for CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (Marvel/Disney), and one has to wonder:  are audiences getting the teensiest bit tired of superhero spectacles?  That $75M is a giant number, of course–it blows away the $36.9M that Captain America: Winter Soldier earned […]

  Hollywood offered slim competition to the second weekend of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney) and the latest comic book spectacular will easily win the weekend with what Deadline currently estimates will be $60M.  That’s a 59% drop from last weekend, steeper than the 55% for the first Guardians, even though Vol 2 […]

>Transformers 3 is doing good but not great business (midway between the first and second in the series), but the overall weekend is looking like it is up only marginally from last year thanks to weak holds by Cars 2 and Bad Teacher. Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened well and looks like it will […]

  A weak slate of newcomers is almost always good news for the holdovers in the market, and that will be the case this holiday weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (Warners Animation) declined a mild 45% from last week’s opening day to $8M, and should take in at least […]

Another strong weekend at the box office: this weekend is looking like it will be over 50% higher than comparable weekends in recent years (improving from the +18% weekend last week).      Taken 2 from 20th Century Fox opened with a very good $18.6 million Friday and is on pace for $50.0 million Friday-Sunday.   […]

  The latest underperforming franchise entry is TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS (Nickelodeon/Movie Media Group/Alibaba/Paramount).  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $11.6M, down 55% from the $25.6M start for the rebooted TMNT 2 years ago.  That suggests a weekend that may not hit $30M, and a US total under $100M.  […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #14 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up 40% from the four-year average for this weekend.  All credit goes to the second Captain America, as Disney has succesfully transformed April into the new May on the evolving movie release calendar.   Opening at 3,938 […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #43 of 2013 looks like $96 million for the top 12 films, less than forecast but still up 12% to 18% from the same weekend in recent years. Opening at 3,336 theaters Friday, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa from Paramount grossed $12.6 million Friday and is on track for a $30.0 million opening weekend […]