OPENINGS:  The Good Friday/Easter weekend was solid for the most part, but it lacked a major holiday opening because Avengers: Endgame is just a few days away and set to engulf box offices worldwide.  Instead, the studios offered films aimed at niches or short runs.  They were led by THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is now -6% below last year’s comparable span (one point worse than last week) and now -1% below this point the past four years ($6.912 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood […]

  OPENINGS:  The numbers for STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (Lucasfilm/Disney) were always going to be huge, but despite all the “dog ate its homework” excuses like pre-holiday shopping syndrome that are ricocheting around the trades today, a $175.5M start in the US is a significant disappointment.  Anyone who’s seen Skywalker knows that it […]

  OPENINGS:  We’re starting to get a feel for what this pandemic box office looks like, absent big-studio blockbusters.  This week’s HONEST THIEF (Open Road) opened at $3.7M in 2425 theatres (a weekend per-theatre $1525 average), just about the same as last week’s The War With Grandpa, even though they’re in completely different genres.  Honest […]

  OPENINGS:  DEAR EVAN HANSEN (Universal) clunked badly with a $7.5M debut, following on the heels of the underperforming In the Heights and underlining that while musicals can score at the box office, they remain a risky genre.  Even with a relatively low production cost and limited marketing, it’s hard to see any path to […]

  OPENINGS:  Although TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Paramount) is a 36-years-later sequel, the franchise that it really represents is Tom Cruise unto himself.  The last true Hollywood megastar brought in a massive audience that was mostly older men and between the coasts, to the tune of $124M for the 3-day weekend and $151M including Monday, making […]

  OPENINGS:  The surprise isn’t so much that COCAINE BEAR (Universal) “overdelivered,” but that expectations were so low for a picture that had been the subject of pop culture fascination for months.  The $23.1M weekend seems like a realistic reflection of that fact, and although business is likely to drop quickly now that audiences have […]

  OPENINGS:  THE MARVELS (Marvel/Disney) fulfilled the ghastliest projections assigned to it, setting a new low for the MCU with a $47M US opening, and it was similarly dismal overseas, with $63.3M from 51 territories.  The internet is already bursting with theories that include “No one liked Captain Marvel in the first place” and the […]