The marketing department did its job, and BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (DC/RatPac/Warners) had its massive opening day, currently estimated by Deadline at $81.3M (including $27.7M from Thursday night).  If that number holds till morning, it will be the #5 opening day ever, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Harry Potter & […]

> The post-Thanksgiving weekend is usually brutal, and this year is no exception. BREAKING DAWN PART 1:  The likely 60% drop from last weekend is as expected for this very front-loaded series.  Right now the film is running $9M below New Moon‘s 2009 total at the same point in its run, but Breaking Dawn 1 […]

  Despite a trio of new arrivals, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT (Skydance/Alibaba/Paramount) will ride strong reviews and word of mouth to an easy second consecutive weekend crown.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have Friday at $9.8M, down 57% from last week, and better than the 60% drop for the 2nd Friday of Rogue Nation.  With that […]

> Anyone who thinks the boxoffice isn’t in a slump needs a new prescription for bifocals. Note:  since December 24 is a traditionally deadly day at the boxoffice (closed theatres, family plans)  that would make 3-day weekend estimates look even worse than they are, we’ll use 4 day Friday-Monday weekend estimates below. WE BOUGHT A […]

  Here’s a scary factoid for the studios.  In 2013, 5 movies opened in May/June that reached over $200M in the US alone, and none of those movies had a total lower than $228.8M.  This year, as we head to mid-June, it doesn’t look like any of the summer openings will get that high.  (The […]

  There may be a pair of tight races at the box office this weekend.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, VENOM (Tencent/Columbia/Sony) has the early lead with $9.5M on Friday, down 71% from last week’s opening day.  That’s much worse than the 54% Friday-to-Friday drop for Doctor Strange and the 57% for Justice League, […]

> GREEN LANTERN cost at least as much as Thor ($350-400M with worldwide marketing), and will probably open around 15% lower–and Thor is no blockbuster hit.  Which means that although intensive promos got bodies into theatres, Warners and DC aren’t out of the woods.  The picture only scored a B on Cinemascore despite what must […]

  The studios remained largely averse to going wide on the weekend before The Last Jedi devours the universe.  JUST GETTING STARTED (Broad Green) was thrown with little ceremony and no advance reviews into 2161 theatres, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it had a dismal $1.1M on Friday, which with word of mouth […]