OPENINGS:  HOBBS & SHAW (Universal) dropped 13% on Saturday, considerably less frontloaded than the 31% Saturday drops for the last 2 Fast & Furious titles, The Fate Of the Furious and Furious 7.  Both of those shed an additional 29-31% on their first Sundays, and Universal is optimistically assuming a mere 20% drop for […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  No change in the studio rankings this week with no studio increasing more than $100 million over the past 7 days worldwide.  Fox’s modest gain this week comes mostly from the domestic potential for Let’s Be Cops and continued overseas grosses for How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Disney’s weekly gain is mostly a function of […]

  OPENINGS:  The race between DUMB AND DUMBER TO (Red Granite/Universal) and Big Hero 6 may get a bit closer tomorrow, since Universal has aggressively estimated a 28% Sunday drop even though Dumb fell 2% on Saturday.  (By comparison, Beyond the Lights climbed 14% on Satuday, yet is acknowledging a 40% Sunday drop.)  But even […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is still +4% above last year and still +5% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.371 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $19.7 billion worldwide when we […]

  OPENINGS:  In the US, NO TIME TO DIE (UA/MGM) opened at $56M, at the low end of expectations–and “expectations” are usually already set low so that the press will report that a film has “overperformed”–and below the last three Bond films (Quantum of Solace $67.5M, Skyfall $88.4M, Spectre $70.4M).  Obviously the pandemic is a […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is now +5% above last year and still +3% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.878 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $21.1 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

  We’ve reached the last of our major studio midsummer surveys (we’ll take a look at mini-majors and indie distributors next week), having tackled Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony,and 20th Century Fox.  Our final target is Universal Pictures. It was all going so well for Universal–until this weekend.  After going a remarkable 3 for 3 […]

>The Hunger Games continues its march around the world, now up to $194 million overseas.  This number is driven by $24.1 million so far from the United Kingdom, $22.0 million from Australia, $13.9 million from Germany, $12.9 million from Russia, $10.4 million from Mexico and $9.1 million from France.  No numbers yet from Japan, suggesting […]