OPENINGS:  THE MARKSMAN (Open Road) allows Liam Neeson to lay claim to being the most prolific movie star of the pandemic, following on the releases of Honest Thief and the smaller-scale Made In Italy.  Despite a holiday weekend opening, Marksman‘s 3-day $3.2M start is below the $4.1M for Honest Thief, with a 4-day total […]

  OPENINGS:  It’s official:  THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART I (Lionsgate) opened to $123M in the US, down 20% from the first Hunger Games and down 23% from Catching Fire.  That’s still the #1 opening of the year by 23% (beating Transformers: Age of Extinction), and the 15th biggest opening ever, but there’s no way […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal is the big gainer again this week, primarily because of continued overseas strength for Jurassic World.  Paramount had the second best week, thanks to Terminator: Genisys.  In contrast, Magic Mike XXL made a small contribution to its studio totals, giving Warner Brothers about the same modest week that Disney had with late overseas returns […]

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 ($6.833 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $18.1 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

  OPENINGS:  In the US, the launch of THE MUMMY (Perfect World/Universal) could hardly have gone worse with a $32.2M weekend.  Although it’s higher than the openings for Tom Cruise’s recent Jack Reacher titles and Edge of Tomorrow, this was a very expensive project (reports differ on just how expensive, with production costs from $125M […]

  OPENINGS:  THE MEG (Gravity/Warners) had a fair hold on Saturday, down 2%, which brought it to a $44.5M weekend.  That’s 83% better than Skyscraper‘s start, and 27% better than Rampage, and with no new direct competition next weekend, The Meg could reach $125M in the US.  However, the mega-B-movie had a reported $300M+ in […]

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 now +7% above last year and now +8% above the average for this point the past four years ($4.283 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $13.1 […]

  OPENINGS:  The box office for TWISTERS (Warners/Universal) was paradoxical.  In the US, the movie strongly outperformed expectations with $80.5M.  However, it showed much less appeal overseas, with $27.1M in 76 territories this weekend ($42.7M to date including some revenue from markets that opened last week).  Twisters is also about to lose virtually all its […]