Eventually, every franchise runs out of steam.  (Although they sometimes pick it up again, like Bond James Bond.) OPENINGS:  PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 (Par) is off to a worse start than the last two in the series (the original Paranormal followed a different release pattern and didn’t go wide until its 5th week in theatres).  […]

  OPENINGS:  Comparisons between THE BUTLER (Weinstein) and The Help 2 years ago are somewhat skewed by the fact that Help opened on a Wednesday, so it had already earned $9.9M before its $26M weekend.  Nevertheless, an $8.3M Friday and probably a $22-25M weekend is excellent for Butler, whose next hurdle will be to show if […]

  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 […]

  Well, bah humbug. OPENINGS:  Start the spin machine:  THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Warners/MGM) has opened with $31.1M, $6M below the start for last year’s An Unexpected Journey.  That’s more than a 15% drop, and if it continued throughout the weekend, Smaug could end up with a total around $70M.  However, the bulk […]

  It’s been 7 weeks since Christopher Robin arrived for the family audience, and THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS (Universal) took advantage of that drought with a $7.7M opening day according to early numbers at Deadline, which should give it a $24M weekend.  House had a moderate production budget and a marketing […]

    OPENINGS:  THE GREAT GATSBY (Warners) opened about as well as Warners could have hoped with a $19.8M Friday (including Thursday night).  Mothers Day is traditionally a big ticketselling day, especially for female-skewing films, and that should cushion the weekend to perhaps $55M despite bad reviews and unimpressive exit poll results, although there’s still […]

  Following on the heels of La La Land and A Star Is Born, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (Regency/20th) is underscoring the vitality of the adult-oriented musical genre.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it had a $19.2M Friday (including $3.9M from Thursday night), and although some Queen-fan frontloading is possible, it could have a $52M weekend, […]

  The movie that set the all-time highest opening weekend record last week?  It’s gonna win this weekend, too. THE AVENGERS:  Disney‘s estimate of a $100M weekend may be aggressive (although with Mother’s Day in the mix, maybe not), but it hardly matters, since Avengers will barrel past the $75M current 2d weekend record with […]