The bulk of the week’s openings arrived on Wednesday, and as usual for this weekend they were led by a Disney family attraction.  This year it was COCO (Pixar/Disney), which was more or less on target at $13.2M, down 15% from last year’s Moana and its $15.5M opening day.  That suggests the 5-day weekend […]

  The gamble of CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Color Force/SK Global/Warners) is paying off with solid returns.  The film opened on Wednesday and earned $8.8M in its first two days, and preliminary numbers at Deadline have its Friday at $7M.  That should give it a $21M 3-day weekend and around $30M since opening day.  A $70M […]

  The MCU continues to be America’s uber-franchise, as SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (Columbia/Sony) became the first summer mega-movie in several weeks to fully live up to expectations.  Few films have opened on the Tuesday before a Thursday July 4th, so comparisons aren’t exact, but Far From Home earned $91.5M on its Tuesday-Thursday (The Amazing […]

> MONEYBALL‘s debut looks to be in line with the opening weekend of The Social Network ($22.4M) just about a year ago.  That movie rode the Oscar race to a $97M gross.  Moneyball is more likable but less incisive than Network, and while it’s going to be part of the Oscar conversation, it’s less likely […]

> 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 […]

  Even if Die Hard takes the weekend, it’s running on fumes. OPENINGS:  A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (20th) cost at least triple the budget of SAFE HAVEN (Relativity), and had a more expensive marketing campaign as well.  Yet on Friday, only $75K separated the two–and that was after Safe Haven won Valentine’s Day to […]

  OPENINGS:  When CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Sony) chose this weekend to open, it must have seemed like the perfect spot for a #1 ranking, with no direct competition and the previous week’s new title a sci-fi movie that might start big but would drop heavily in its second weekend.  Then Gravity happened, and suddenly Captain Phillips […]

  OPENINGS:  22 JUMP STREET (Sony/Columbia) went even higher on Friday than early estimates had it, reaching $25M.  Even if it’s front-loaded as a young-skewing sequel, a $60M weekend is all but guaranteed, which would be 65% higher than the $36.3M opening weekend for 21 Jump Street, and if strong word of mouth kicks in, […]