OPENINGS:  A bit surprisingly, perhaps, Pixar’s recent movies haven’t exploded at the Saturday/Sunday matinee box office, with merely normal (as opposed to “family”) weekend multiples off their Friday openings.  So MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (Disney/Pixar) is likely headed to a $75-78M weekend after a $30.5M Friday, slightly less than anticipated.  That’s still Pixar’s 2d-best opening ever (behind […]

  Valentine’s Day is an enormous moviegoing event each year, so it remains to be seen whether Friday’s brisk business will translate to the rest of the holiday weekend. OPENINGS:  ABOUT LAST NIGHT (Screen Gems/Sony) barely missed 1st place with $13M on Friday, beaten by $30K, but it’s off to an impressive start, especially when […]

  OPENINGS:  FURY (Columbia/Sony) should reach $25M for the weekend after a $8.8M Friday.  Sony is claiming total costs (including worldwide marketing) of $150M, and that’s probably low by at least $25M.  With a box office total of $75M probable in the US, the movie will need overseas strength to hit profit, and luckily Brad […]

  A piece of beloved genre IP that gets rave reviews is hard to beat, and the newest iteration of HALLOWEEN (Blumhouse/Miramax/Universal) is headed toward a huge opening.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline put Friday at $33M ($7.7M from Thursday night), and even allowing for the typical front-loading of sequels and horror movies, that should mean […]

> THE HELP will be the year’s first “serious” movie to gross over $100M.  September is traditionally one of the softest months on the movie release calendar, and 2011 is no exception:  although there are a few promising arrivals like Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion and the film adaptation of  Moneyball, the major openings (they hope) include […]

> Gary Ross should probably think twice before leaving THE HUNGER GAMES. THE HUNGER GAMES: Because of the Good Friday holiday, Friday numbers were unusually strong this week and Saturday’s will appear unusually weak. That could mean a 3rd weekend of around $33M for Hunger Games (Lionsgate/Summit) (depending on the Easter Sunday drop), which could […]

  OPENINGS:  ZERO DARK THIRTY (Sony) expanded to coincide with its Oscar nominations, and the strategy worked as planned, with the acclaimed (and, in some circles, attacked) drama easily carrying Friday with $9M, on its way to $25-27M for the weekend. It’s a massive embarrassment for GANGSTER SQUAD (Warners) that it was beaten by the […]

  OPENINGS:  INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 2 (FilmDistrict) had the year’s biggest horror start with $20.1M (including $1.5M from Thursday night).  That compares to $17M for The Conjuring, the year’s biggest hit in the genre (and also from director James Wan).  Insidious 2, though, is likely to be much more front-loaded, given its fairly lousy reviews and Friday the […]