> Navy SEALs shoot up the Friday boxoffice. OPENINGS:  The very aggressive marketing for ACT OF VALOR (Relativity) made it seem like it was a patriotic duty to see the film, and successfully hid the fact that it’s mostly a sub-par B action movie.  The question now is whether its quality will catch up with […]

> Well-played, Marvel/Disney. THE AVENGERS:  Years of planning and marketing led to the 2d biggest opening day of all time, $80.5M, that was behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and its $91.1M.  (And Deathly Hallows 2 was far more front-loaded with Thursday midnight money, $43.5M compared to Avengers’ $18.7M.)  Now, the […]

  OPENINGS:  THE PURGE (Universal) will be instantly profitable by the end of its high $30Ms weekend, and while a great deal of that is due to the $3M production budget, a US marketing spend of only $20M (less than half the normal big-studio amount) is a big help.  The key:  minimal expensive TV advertising.  […]

  BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was a high-risk bet, with roughly $300M in production and worldwide marketing wagered on an extremely serious 164-minute sequel to a 35-year old film that only became legendary after it was itself a sizable flop in theatres.  Reportedly, the bulk of that investment rested with Alcon, while Sony (international) and […]

  Behaving much like recent high-profile sequels Spectre and Mockingjay Part 2, RIDE ALONG 2 (Universal) appears to be heading for an opening weekend around 20% below its predecessor.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Ride 2 had a $11.8M Friday, compared to $14.4M for the original Ride Along.  That suggests a 4-day holiday weekend […]

  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 […]

  After 2 weeks of unexpectedly smash hits, the dog days of summer attacked multiplexes with a vengeance. OPENINGS:  THE EXPENDABLES 3 (Lionsgate) squeezed ahead of Let’s Be Cops on Friday, $5.8M (including $875K from Thursday night) to $5.6M, but since this was Expendables‘ opening night and Cops had started on Wednesday, the likelihood is […]

  Considering the almost laughably low level of the competition it faced, THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (Universal) didn’t hold up well on its 2d Friday.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have the day at $11.4M, down 75% from last week’s opening day.  That’s worse than the 72% Friday-to-Friday drop for Furious 7 (which was coming […]