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.  […]

  Although it’s possible for a horror or action movie to make some money over Labor Day weekend, no studio opens a movie it cares about for the holiday that repels moviegoers.  This weekend’s openings won’t change that rule.  THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (DreamWorks/Reliant/Participant/Touchstone/Disney) was probably envisioned as an awards-worthy project when it was originally […]

  With a franchise like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney), profitability isn’t at issue.  Guardians 2 carries around $350M in worldwide production/marketing costs, and it will be in hailing distance of financial success by Sunday.  The question is how the given installment ranks in terms of similar mega-competition and expectations.  Preliminary numbers at […]

  A general note:  the last time December 22 fell on a Friday was in 2006, and a look at that year indicates what box office patterns may be between now and January 1.  We can expect most films to have a relatively mild Saturday uptick (up to 30%) then plunge by 50% or so […]

  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 […]

>Puss in Boots managed to bounce back from a soft opening last week, declining only 18% and holding on to the #1 position.  Tower Heist stumbled out of the gate and is on track for #2 and an underwhelming $25 million.  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas was impressive only by the low standards […]

The 28th weekend of 2012 is looking like a very weak $149 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 29% from this weekend last year and down 42% from the multi-year average for this weekend.            Ice Age: Continental Drift from 20th Century Fox (the fourth Ice Age film) opened with […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #5 of 2013 is another weak one: only $69 million for the top 12 films (over 30% behind the pace for the same weekend the last few years).   Opening at 3,009 theaters Friday, Warm Bodies from Summit grossed $7.6 million Friday and is on track for a $20 million opening weekend […]