> Let’s take a look at just how remarkably THE HELP is performing so far.   The most obvious points of comparison are the literary-sourced, female-skewing hits of the last 2 Augusts:  Julie & Julia in 2009, and last year’s Eat Pray Love.  Julia had a $20M opening that led to a $94M domestic gross; Eat […]

  OPENINGS:  NEIGHBORS (Universal) is a big win for all concerned, with a huge $19.6M Friday that could put it in reach of $50M for the weekend, especially if the fact that this is a rare mainstream Hollywood non-rom-com comedy with a strong woman character gives it a boost on Mothers Day.  There’s no reason […]

  OPENINGS:  PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount) was an experiment in several ways–the first installment of the franchise to be a spin-off and not a direct sequel, the first released out of the Halloween season, and one of Hollywood’s first tries at producing and marketing a movie primarily to the Latino audience.  All of […]

  OPENINGS:  22 JUMP STREET (Sony/Columbia) went even higher on Friday than early estimates had it, reaching $25M.  Even if it’s front-loaded as a young-skewing sequel, a $60M weekend is all but guaranteed, which would be 65% higher than the $36.3M opening weekend for 21 Jump Street, and if strong word of mouth kicks in, […]

  It’s a yearly irony that on the most moviecentric weekend of the year, hardly anyone goes to the movies. OPENINGS:  Dwayne Johnson’s vehicle SNITCH (Summit/Lionsgate) will lead the newcomers, but may face difficulty over the course of the weekend as The Rock’s fans discover it isn’t really the action movie it’s been marketed as […]

  OPENINGS:  OUT OF THE FURNACE (Relativity) will do nothing to change the reputation of the first weekend in December as a terrible time to open a new movie.  Even in a more robust weekend, the grim quasi-art film, quasi-action thriller would have had a hard time (and the presence of Christian Bale didn’t help […]

  An ugly day, even by Super Bowl Weekend standards. OPENINGS:  WARM BODIES (Summit/Lionsgate) proved to be decent counterprogramming by aiming at a young woman audience, and with a $7.6M Friday, should be on its way to a $18-20M weekend, and perhaps $50M before it’s done.  No such luck for BULLET TO THE HEAD (Warners), […]

  OPENINGS:  PLAYING FOR KEEPS (FilmDistrict) cratered as expected, in 6th place on its opening day with a sad $2.1M start.  It’s on its way to a $6M weekend and perhaps $15M in total, which won’t even pay off its marketing costs. HOLDOVERS:  With essentially nothing new at the multiplexes, the longrunning hits mostly held […]