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 […]

  Mitch Metcalf has a great analysis of the continuing strength of THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) after its $31.3M Friday in his box office post today–highly recommended.  Catching Fire should set a slew of milestones tomorrow, including the best 3-day and 5-day Thanksgiving weekends ever, and very possibly the #2 second weekend of all […]

  OPENINGS:  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) came up from initial Friday estimates to $70.5M, the 7th highest single day box office in US history (behind the final Harry Potter, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, and 3 Twilights) and $3.2M ahead of the opening day for The Hunger Games.  If Catching Fire held as […]

  OPENINGS:  THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (Universal) took advantage of being the only new movie in the market and nosed ahead of Thor on Friday, $10.7M to $10.5M.  That lead won’t hold for the rest of the weekend, but it’s still a great result for Best Man, which should end up with a weekend total […]

  OPENINGS:  The $31.6M first day for THOR: THE DARK WORLD (Disney) was about 24% higher than the $25.5M opening for the first Thor, an increment likely to reduce as the movie’s run continues, since sequels tend to be more front-loaded.  A $200M US total would be more than 10% up from Thor‘s $181M.  Where […]

  OPENINGS:  Stop me if you’ve heard this before:  an expensive action-adventure will need to overperform internationally in order to get past its red ink.  With Thor 2 opening in just a week, ENDER’S GAME (Summit/Lionsgate) had a very narrow window to make an impression, and its $9.9M Friday, probably meaning a weekend in the […]

  OPENINGS:  BAD GRANDPA (Paramount) cost only $15M to produce, and although that’s somewhat misleading (when worldwide marketing is added, the total cost becomes more like $75M+), it’s still headed for easy success with a $12.6M opening day that should mean a $26-28M weekend and $60M in the US when it’s done.  Paramount’s decision to […]

  OPENINGS:  When Paramount pushed the next Paranormal Activity to 2014, it seemed to give CARRIE (Screen Gems/Sony/MGM) an open field to own the Halloween movie season.  But audiences weren’t interested, and Carrie managed only a $6.6M opening day on the way to a likely $15M weekend, a major disappointment considering the auspices (the classic […]