In an entertainment universe changing with bewildering speed, two stories today spoke to the difficulties and opportunities of old and new media.  First, let’s take a look at what’s happening to the traditional mode of seeing movies in theaters Big-budget adventure-adventure spectacles have long been the bread and butter of the Hollywood studios, and […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is still down -2% from last year and still +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.042 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost […]

>Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol opened with a narrow 425-theater preview domestically this weekend, but the fourth M:I opened in over two-thirds of the international markets this weekend and already has taken in $68 million overseas.  The other domestic openers this weekend had fairly limited international bookings the first weekend.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of […]

> Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens huge overseas, almost topping Fast Five in its first weekend.    The table below shows the domestic and international grosses for the Top 25 films (out of the 47 movies released between January and April at over 500 theaters).  Fast Five is still the #1 film worldwide released between January and […]

The summer’s two powerhouses crossed significant milestones in worldwide box office, with Marvel’s The Avengers getting to $1.5 billion and The Dark Knight Rises crossing $1 billion.  Avengers is the #3 movie on the all-time worldwide box office list (far behind #2 Titanic‘s $2.185 billion).  Dark Knight Rises is currently #12 all time (just behind #11 Alice in Wonderland‘s $1.024 billion).  Conceivably, […]

Updated International Box Office chart below.  Big movers this week include The Croods (debuting on the chart with $63 million overseas to date), Oz the Great and Powerful (up $42 million overseas this week) and Jack the Giant Slayer (up $38 million overseas this week).

  Our summertime look at the health of Hollywood’s studios continues.  We’ve already examined Disney and Warner Bros, and today Paramount is in our viewfinder. Since getting out of both the Marvel and the DreamWorks Animation business, Paramount has been sedate, even sedentary, with the quietest summer of any studio.  Management has been fairly stable, […]

  Sunday numbers will likely be a bit stronger than usual this week due to the Columbus Day holiday tomorrow. OPENINGS:  CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Sony) didn’t even come close to taking the weekend, but its $26M is quite strong given its older-skewing star and story, not to mention the giant competition from Gravity–it’s better, for example, […]