OPENINGS:  THE GRINCH (Illumination/Universal) rode its family movie 47% Saturday bump to a $66M weekend, 20% better than 2000’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  There are relatively few recent mid-November family movie releases, because Disney has established its ownership of the Thanksgiving corridor that starts less than 2 weeks later (this year’s installment is […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is now +6% above last year and now +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.066 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $18.6 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

  OPENINGS:  The traditional horror movie start of the new year was provided by NIGHT SWIM (Blumhouse-Atomic Planet/Universal), although at $12M it was the lowest such arrival since The Grudge started with $11.4M in 2020.  The final number for that one was $21.2M, and Night Swim probably won’t be much higher.  The international launch was […]

Warner Brothers and Disney remain in a tight battle for the worldwide crown for 2013.  We will keep updating this over the next few weeks and declare a winner after the overseas grosses are fully counted.  The most significant films still grossing overseas are The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (for Warner Brothers) and Frozen (for Disney).  For a […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. The worldwide studio rankings for 2013 to date remain the same as last week’s.  The anomalous weekly decline (down $8 million) for 20th Century Fox is a function of some downward revisions of some domestic final tallies. Reminder: the chart below has been reformatted and expanded to include a look at all releases […]

  Note:  Because of the holiday weekend and consequent strong Sunday, weekend-to-weekend drops will look softer than usual. OPENINGS:  It was a weak battle of newcomers, with A WALK IN THE WOODS (Broad Green) ahead at $8.4M ($10.5M with Wed-Thurs earnings) vs. THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED (Europa/RED) at $7.1M.  Walk compares well to the $8.5M opening […]

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 now +8% above last year and now +11% above the average for this point […]

  OPENINGS:  It’s very possible that the news is going to get even worse for THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS (H Brothers/Black Bear/STX), which is grimly insisting on a studio estimate of the best Sunday hold in the weekend’s Top 10 to claim a $10M opening–even after dropping 15% on Saturay.  That number may easily slip to […]