MONDAY UPDATE:  Father’s Day was a holiday, all right… for some movies.  22 JUMP STREET vastly overestimated its appeal to dads, taking a sizable 30% hit on Sunday and falling an ugly $3M below its original weekend number to $57.1M.  HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 was also a bit weaker than expected, down […]

  OPENINGS:  With a $27.4M start, 2 GUNS (Universal) is probably headed for $85M in the US, a fair if unexciting return for a movie that claims to have (post-tax credits) a $61M production budget.  With Universal taking its marketing expenses and distribution fees off the top, there won’t be much profit for financiers Emmett-Furia […]

The big gainers overseas this week were The Expendables 2 (up $36 million to $102 million), The Dark Knight Rises (up another $29 million to $603 million overseas to date), Brave (up $17 million) and Step Up Revolution (up $11 million).  Not reporting yet are Bourne Legacy and Ice Age: Continental Drift. The Words will not be a player overseas, but the other opener this weekend, The Cold […]

  OPENINGS:  David Cronenberg is a venerated filmmaker, but not a source of many box office hits:  in a career that spans more than 4 decades, his highest-grossing film in the US is still 1986’s The Fly at $40.5M (a little over $100M adjusted for inflation).  That won’t change with his brooding and frequently grotesque […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is a first look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -30% below last year’s comparable span and now -23% below the average for this point the past four years ($1.564 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $3.2 […]

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 +10% above the average for this point […]

  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 […]

The Dark Knight Rises opened with $88 million overseas in a modest 17 territories.  We’ll give Rises a preliminary overseas target of $490 million, slightly higher than 2008’s The Dark Knight, which grossed $469 million overseas.  If our overseas target is correct, that put puts the worldwide target for Dark Knight Rises at $980 million, just behind The Dark Knight‘s […]