OPENINGS: LYLE LYLE CROCODILE (Columbia/Sony) arrived below expectations at $11.5M (it might reach $13.4M with the Monday holiday), unable to take advantage of the 11-week gap since the last major family movie opened. It has more than a month until Strange World claims that audience, but even with strong holds, it still may not […]
OPENINGS: MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU (Illumination/Universal) exceeded industry expectations with a $108.5M 3-day opening. That’s just a bit lower than the $115.7M launch for the first Minions movie, although that was an April 2015 launch that didn’t have the benefit of a holiday Sunday. Rise of Gru is expected to hit $127.9M over […]
OPENINGS: LIGHTYEAR (Pixar/Disney) was a tricky attempt to extend the hugely lucrative Toy Story franchise, both a prequel and a spinoff that featured a different version of the titular character than the one audiences have loved for decades. Disney didn’t manage to convince fans that it was essential viewing, and the result was a […]
OPENINGS: Although TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Paramount) is a 36-years-later sequel, the franchise that it really represents is Tom Cruise unto himself. The last true Hollywood megastar brought in a massive audience that was mostly older men and between the coasts, to the tune of $124M for the 3-day weekend and $151M including Monday, making […]
OPENINGS: UNCHARTED (Columbia/Sony) had a strong start with $44.2M ($51M with the holiday Monday), once again largely due to the M18-34 demo, but also suggesting that Tom Holland may be emerging as an action star even without webs to spin. (Of course it didn’t hurt that Uncharted followed his mega-smash Spider-Man so closely that […]
OPENINGS: Note that the entire market in the US will be hit by Super Bowl Sunday, which will be down from Saturday by roughly double the percentage of the usual Saturday-Sunday drop. (However, Hollywood will hope for a Valentine’s Day bump the following day.) Even with that included in the calculations, though, the weekend’s […]
OPENINGS: The 18-34 audience that now defines theatrical distribution in the US showed up for SCREAM (Skyglass/Paramount), propelling the reboot to $30.6M for the 3-day weekend and $35M for the 4-day holiday. Reportedly, that demo was responsible for 2/3 of all tickets sold for Scream, a fact that won’t be ignored as studios plan […]
HOLDOVERS: Pandemic box office champion SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (Marvel/Columbia/Sony) had no trouble keeping its throne over New Year’s weekend, down 38% to $52.7M, with a running US total of $609.9M. The January ahead is sparse on competition, so the film should top $700M, which will make it the #2 MCU title in the […]