WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is still +10% above last year and still+11% above the average for this point […]

  OPENINGS:  TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS (Nickelodeon/Movie Media Group/Alibaba/Paramount) opened 46% below the TMNT reboot 2 years ago at $35.3M.  That suggests a $100M US total, and with $250M+ in production/marketing costs, the bulk of that will have to be recovered overseas.  So far, it’s earned $34M in 40 territories, not […]

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:  NO HARD FEELINGS (Columbia/Sony) slightly exceeded tracking expectations with $15.1M, but those expectations were themselves quite low.  With production and worldwide marketing costs in the neighborhood of $100M, the film will need to hold strongly for the next several weeks to reach any profit, and while it has the hard-R comedy field to […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. Another very strong week for Universal (primarily overseas grosses for Despicable Me 2 which were understated in last week’s chart), enough to pass Warner Brothers and move into the #2 spot in terms of worldwide box office.  The perennial also-ran Universal finds itself in an odd position: in the upper tier of the worldwide […]

  OPENINGS:  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony) won’t arrive in the US for almost 2 weeks, and so far it’s in only 14 international markets–and it was still the biggest story of the weekend, pulling in $47M in those territories, which included portions of Europe as well as Australia and Mexico.  Amazing 2 is following […]

  Warner Bros and Peter Jackson are very, very lucky that THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG is a significantly better movie than last year’s An Unexpected Journey, which will give it strong word of mouth, because early box office indications are that audiences, burned by Journey, are initially dubious about spending 3 more hours […]

  OPENINGS:  I FEEL PRETTY (Voltage/H Brothers/STX) became the first Amy Schumer movie to dip on its 2nd day of release, indicating weak word of mouth.  Its $16.2M weekend put it in 3rd place for the weekend, with uncertain prospects.  STX only has the film in the US, with reported costs of $45M, which may […]