OPENINGS:  The $37M Friday for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney) was the highest ever in the month of April, ahead of Fast Five‘s $34.4M.  Fast Five fell 13% on Saturday to hit a $86.2M weekend, and Winter Soldier will hope to beat that.  Depending on word of mouth, it could get as high […]

  OPENINGS:  NOAH (Paramount/Regency) got the start it wanted and needed with $15.2M on Friday ($1.6M of that from Thursday night), which–unless word of mouth sinks the ark–should mean a $40M weekend.  The darkly revisionist biblical spectacle also has $28.3M overseas, where it’s still in just 21 markets, so for now it’s on track to […]

  What was supposed to be an exciting pre-summer weekend at the box office is instead looking rather blah. OPENINGS:  Compared to recent YA disasters like The Mortal Instruments and Beautiful Creatures, DIVERGENT (Summit/Lionsgate) looks pretty good with a $22.8M Friday ($4.9M of it from Thursday night), up marginally from Friday night estimates.  But this […]

  OPENINGS:  NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) won Friday with $6.6M (which includes $1.1M from Thursday night), but it’s destined to come in 2d or even 3rd for the weekend, probably under $20M.  At a $175M cost (including worldwide marketing), $50M in the US will barely make a dent, meaning that the movie will need to […]

  OPENINGS:  300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (Warners/Legendary) did well in late-night shows, raising its Friday estimate to $17.7M, which may bring its opening weekend to $43M or more.  That’s still not in a league with the original 300 and its $28.9M/70.1M start (especially since the 2007 movie didn’t have 3D ticket prices or Thursday […]

  OPENINGS:  NON-STOP (Universal) had the Friday lead with $10M, but that doesn’t mean it’ll take the weekend.  In any case, Universal’s investment will pay off handsomely–it covered only $12M of the budget for US rights (plus marketing costs in its territory, of course), and a likely weekend in the high $20Ms should mean US […]

  Note:  all holdovers will show unusually sharp Friday-to-Friday declines due to Valentine’s Day last week, and should recover somewhat over the course of the weekend. OPENINGS:  3 DAYS TO KILL (Relativity), with a $4M Friday and likely $12M weekend, won’t accomplish its goal of establishing Kevin Costner as the next elder statesman action-hero a […]

  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 […]