> Fast Five enters the worldwide January-April box office chart in the #2 position, with plenty more upside in its overseas numbers.  When the final results are in, Fast Five will probably be the #1 movie worldwide for the first third of the year, followed by Rio and Rango.    The graphic below shows the […]

  OPENINGS:  There wasn’t any good news for this week’s wide releases, and that began with the weekend’s leader, as THE FLASH (DC/Warners) failed to meet even the lowest expectations with a sluggish $55.1M start.  (The studio’s 4-day estimate, including the Monday Juneteenth holiday, was an optimistic $64M.)  The 3-day total was significantly lower than […]

  OPENINGS:  INCREDIBLES 2 (Pixar/Disney) resoundingly became the highest-opening animated film of all time with a giant $180M weekend, more than 30% higher than the $135.1M for Finding Dory.  Its Saturday behaved similarly to Dory, down 18% from Friday compared to Dory‘s 17%, although Incredibles 2 is looking for a better Sunday hold, down 16% […]

  Truth be told, “weekend” box office doesn’t mean much in a week where Friday/Saturday/Sunday are no stronger than the weekdays that surround them, and virtually all the openings took place on Wednesday.  (Also, morning estimates aren’t very different from the preliminary numbers we posted last night.)  Nevertheless, a few thoughts. OPENINGS:  THE WOLF OF […]

  STAR WARS:  Whether one considers Avatar‘s proper US all-time box office record to be $749.8M (initial release) or $760.5M (includes “director’s cut” re-release), the crown will be changing hands in the next few days.  STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Lucasfilm/Disney), which declined 41% on its 3rd weekend to $88.3M (setting yet another record by […]

  OPENINGS:  CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (Disney) led the newcomers with $25M (as is always the case with studio estimates that barely exceed a round number, that may decline in finals tomorrow), 16% better than Disney’s debut of Pete’s Dragon in August 2016.  However, the films had different trajectories, with Robin down 9% on Saturday, while Dragon […]

  OPENINGS:  THOR: LOVE & THUNDER (Marvel/Disney) opened within expectations at $143M, although it’s worth noting that while the Friday-to-Saturday drop was steeper than those for Thor: Ragnarok and Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (39% vs. 5%/36% respectively), the studio estimate assumes a better Saturday-to-Sunday hold than both (25% vs. 27%/33%).  If the […]

  We’re continuing our review of how Hollywood has been faring this summer on a studio-by-studio basis.  We’ve taken looks at Disney, Warner Bros, and Paramount, and today our crosshairs are trained on Sony. So are a lot of other crosshairs.  Sony has been in the news this summer for all the wrong reasons.  Major […]