The see-saw continues in the 2013 studio rankings.  Disney moved back into first (thanks to the domestic release of Frozen with overseas still to come) and Warner Brothers moved back into second place. Meanwhile continued strength from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (a big increase in overseas grosses and an upgrade in the domestic forecast total) pushed Lionsgate/Summit to […]

Frozen continues to push Disney to a clear first place finish for the 2013 slate.  And thanks to continued strong overseas grosses for The Wolf of Wall Street, Paramount has surged ahead of Lionsgate/Summit by a nose.  For a complete ranking of films individually by worldwide performance click here. An early look at the 2014 Studio Scorecard can be […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studios are starting to separate from each other as we approach the midpoint of the year.  20th Century Fox is nearing $1.9 billion worldwide box office to date.  Fox had a decent week with an additional $148 million worldwide (mostly from the domestic release of The Fault in Our Stars).  Warner Brothers […]

  OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) was a bit softer on Saturday than Denzel Washington’s other hits at this box office level, up 8% compared to 11% for American Gangster and 19% for Safe House.  (Possibly because Equalizer is a terrible movie.)  That resulted in a $35M weekend that was slightly lower than Friday’s start had […]

  A strong Saturday lifted everything at the multiplex. OPENINGS:  Obviously AMERICAN SNIPER (Warners/Village Roadshow) wouldn’t be what it is without Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper, but the contributions of the Warners marketing group shouldn’t be overlooked.  Building the trailer and the initial TV ads almost entirely around the one moment in the film where […]

  OPENINGS:  Here’s a telling stat for TOMORROWLAND (Disney):  although the movie was aimed squarely at a family audience, only 30% of the people who showed up were in that demo.  Instead, 60% of the audience was over 25, meaning the older George Clooney fans.  That suggests that Disney marketing wasn’t able to get the […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +6% above last year and still +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.173 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed just under $19.1 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

  OPENINGS:  RIDE ALONG 2 (Universal) is projecting a $39.5M 4-day weekend, 19% below the $48.6M opening of the first Ride Along exactly 2 years ago.  That would put its US trajectory at $100-110M, enough to make it a fine piece of business for all concerned, but any growth would have to come from overseas, […]