OPENINGS:  NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems/Sony) surged ahead of expectations with a $8.8M Friday.  The level of its frontloadedness, however, isn’t yet clear.  2009’s Obsessed, an April 2009 Screen Gems thriller that also starred Idris Elba (with Beyonce instead of Tarji P. Henson), had an $11.2M Friday, and reached $28.6M for its weekend (and […]

  OPENINGS:  Here’s an idea of how disastrously JACK THE GIANT SLAYER (Warners) is bombing.  DreamWorks recently had to take an $87M loss on its Rise of the Guardians, which cost $145M (plus marketing costs) and grossed $300M worldwide.  Jack cost at least $50M more, and is on the road to earn much less with […]

  Liam Neeson, superstar. OPENINGS:  TAKEN 2 (20th) is on track for an opening in the high-$40Ms, which would make it the biggest weekend #1 since late July’s 2nd weekend of The Dark Knight Rises.  Since the movie only cost around $45M to produce (not including substantial marketing costs), it’s already assured of success, and […]

  How much more humiliating can things get for Warners?  On Friday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE BOSS (Universal), which isn’t even a high-performing Melissa McCarthy vehicle, beat up both the studio’s superheroes with about $7.5M.  The Boss will likely have trouble sustaining itself over the weekend, but at about $20M+, it will […]

  Hollywood offered slim competition to the second weekend of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney) and the latest comic book spectacular will easily win the weekend with what Deadline currently estimates will be $60M.  That’s a 59% drop from last weekend, steeper than the 55% for the first Guardians, even though Vol 2 […]

  Those waiting for Marvel to stumble will have to go on waiting.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, THOR: RAGNAROK (Marvel/Disney) had a $46M opening day (including $14.5M from Thursday night), the highest for any Marvel Universe title released outside the May-July corridor.  Opening day was up 44% from the start of Thor:  The […]

  In terms of percentage, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Warners) should have about the same Weekend 3 drop that The Dark Knight did, but since it’s already below Dark Knight, the actual weekend number will be around 15% lower ($36M compared to $42M).  It’s now clear that Rises will–despite being a blockbuster hit to the […]

  Although some films have opened well against the Super Bowl, both counterprogramming (the Hannah Montana concert movie and Dear John) and playing toward the action genre (Taken and Chronicle), as a rule the studios stay away, and that was the case this year.  The only wide opening was the low-budget horror flick WINCHESTER (CBS/Lionsgate), […]