> FOOTLOOSE has the advantage of facing no new direct competition on Friday.  That, along with what should be fairly good word of mouth, could give it some legs in the marketplace.  THE THING, on the other hand, had a make-or-break weekend this week with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 about to hit, and it’s not going […]

  OPENINGS:  PAIN & GAIN (Paramount) is a “relationship” movie, not in the sense of the relationships between the movie’s characters (oh God, no), but the relationship between the studio and its director, Michael Bay.  This was a passion project for Bay, and Paramount agreed to let him make it–and oh, by the way, also […]

Warners is claiming that Sucker Punch cost around $80M, which given the scale of the film suggests either admirable cost-effectiveness or a lowball number–in any case, word of mouth is likely to be terrible (see my review, not to mention that its overall Rotten Tomatoes number is at 20%), so it’s doubtful to get past […]

  How big is big enough?  It’s a question that comes up on giant franchise installments, and the latest is THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (Universal), the 8th in its series.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, its opening day earned $45.5M (including $10.4M from Thursday night), a huge number, but down 33% from Furious […]

  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 […]

  Franchises and a former President may carry the weekend to record heights, but the newcomers stumbled. OPENINGS:  RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) has the advantage of no new animated competition through the entire holiday season (Disney/Pixar is re-releasing a 3D conversion of Monsters Inc in mid-December), and it’s going to need that long […]

  Here’s a scary factoid for the studios.  In 2013, 5 movies opened in May/June that reached over $200M in the US alone, and none of those movies had a total lower than $228.8M.  This year, as we head to mid-June, it doesn’t look like any of the summer openings will get that high.  (The […]

  OPENINGS:  NOAH (Paramount/Regency) got the start it wanted and needed with $15.2M on Friday ($1.6M of that from Thursday night), which–unless word of mouth sinks the ark–should mean a $40M weekend.  The darkly revisionist biblical spectacle also has $28.3M overseas, where it’s still in just 21 markets, so for now it’s on track to […]