OPENINGS:  There had been an expectation, or at least a hope, that MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART I (Skydance/Paramount) would get a boost from the spectacular performance of Top Gun: Maverick, but that didn’t come to pass, and Mission 7 performed in line with others in the franchise.  That meant $56.2M over the […]

  OPENINGS:  IF (Paramount) was at the low end of projections with $35M, although that was an improvement over where it seemed to be headed after Friday’s $10.4M.  The key was strong family turnout on Saturday, but while IF benefited from being the first major release for that demographic in the 11 weeks since Kung […]

>John Carter joins the worldwide box office chart, ranked at #13 out of 44 wide-release films over the past three months.  We are currently estimating John Carter could total $75 million in North America, but the overseas total to date is already $70 million.  If the overseas total ends up around $125 million, the film […]

>Three films are now in or projected to be in the $1 billion worldwide box office club: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  Clearly, movies with long titles (not surprisngly blockbuster sequels) are being rewarded and embraced around the world.  The […]

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted had a good week around the world, now $157 million overseas to date (up from $76 million last week).  Madagascar is headed for $600+ million worldwide ($215 million domestic according to our ShowbuzzDaily projection and the overseas total to date should approach $400 million).  For comparison: Madagascar 2, November 2008, $604 million worldwide […]

  OPENINGS:  ZERO DARK THIRTY (Sony) was well ahead of the crowd with $24M, a number slightly depressed (as was almost everything this weekend) by the Sunday combination of NFL playoffs and the Golden Globes.  The $18.8M for A HAUNTED HOUSE (Open Road) didn’t get close to the openings for the Scary Movie franchise (most […]

STUDIO SCORECARD.  No change in the studio worldwide box office rankings this week.  Universal is extremely hot with the broad international appeal of Fast & Furious 6, but there is still about $500 million to go to catch #1 Disney.  Fox, Paramount and Warner Brothers are very tightly bunched in the next tier. Looking at […]

  OPENINGS:  LONGLEGS (Neon) captured the zeitgeist, successfully delivering the marketing message that it was the scariest horror movie in recent memory.  The result was  a$22.6M weekend, which set a new Neon record by a wide margin, and also marked the year’s highest non-franchise start for the genre.  Production and marketing costs for Longlegs reportedly […]