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EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Zootopia” Tops “10 Cloverfield Lane,” Crushes “Brothers Grimsby,” “Young Messiah,” “Perfect Match’

Posted March 12, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  Word of mouth was great for ZOOTOPIA (Disney), which according to preliminary numbers at Deadline fell a soft 36% from last week’s opening day to $12.5M, setting up a $50M weekend that will put the smash over $140M by Sunday.  That compares to a 45% drop for the 2d Friday of The Lorax, the […]

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EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Fantastic” Not Quite Magical, “Edge of Seventeen,” “Billy Lynn” Obliviated

Posted November 19, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (Warners) wasn’t expected to touch the $60-90M opening day territory of the latter Harry Potter movies, since Fantastic is a spin-off that doesn’t include any of the major Potter characters.  But preliminary numbers at Deadline have it at $29.4M, lower than any of the Potters, and even […]

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EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “The Upside” Has Some, “Aquaman” Subsides, “On The Basis of Sex,” “Beale Street” Expand

Posted January 12, 2019 by Mitch Salem

  THE UPSIDE (STX/Lantern) survived the wreckage of the Weinstein Company bankruptcy, and found an opening between the end of the holiday movie season and next week’s MLK weekend, poking through with what preliminary numbers at Deadline put at a Friday-winning $7M (including $1.1M from Thursday night).  That should propel it to a weekend win […]

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WEDNESDAY BOX OFFICE: “Heaven Is For Real’ Is For Real

Posted April 17, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  The hunger for religious-themed movies hasn’t been dissipated at all by the recent Son of God, God’s Not Dead and Noah, as HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) had a very healthy $3.7M start on Wednesday at 2417 theatres despite indifferent reviews (50% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), edging out CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney) […]

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EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Warcraft” Fights Overseas, “Conjuring” & “Now You See Me” Sequels OK

Posted June 11, 2016 by Mitch Salem

  The most interesting box office story of the weekend is WARCRAFT (Legendary/Universal).  It’s a dud in the US, with $11M on Friday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, which with its frontloaded fan audience probably means a $25M or so weekend and a domestic total that may not reach $75M.  That’s not much on […]

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EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “LEGO Batman,” “50 Shades Darker,” “John Wick 2″” All Solid

Posted February 11, 2017 by Mitch Salem

This is a well-designed weekend for Hollywood, with a trio of sensibly-budgeted franchise titles all drawing audiences from their mostly separate target demos.  The Friday winner, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, was FIFTY SHADES DARKER (Universal), with $20M ($5.7M of it from Thursday night).  That’s about 2/3 of the $30.3M opening day for Fifty […]

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EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Blade Runner 2049″” Slow, “My Little Pony” & “Mountain Between Us” Moderate

Posted October 7, 2017 by Mitch Salem

  BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was a high-risk bet, with roughly $300M in production and worldwide marketing wagered on an extremely serious 164-minute sequel to a 35-year old film that only became legendary after it was itself a sizable flop in theatres.  Reportedly, the bulk of that investment rested with Alcon, while Sony (international) and […]

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EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Endgame” Stays Huge, “Long Shot” So-So, “The Intruder” OK, “UglyDolls” Dim

Posted May 4, 2019 by Mitch Salem

  After AVENGERS: ENDGAME (Marvel/Disney) torched the record books last weekend, the remaining question was whether it would have the stamina to challenge the biggest records of them all, The Force Awakens in the US ($936.7M) and Avatar worldwide ($2.79B).  It’s not clear after Friday whether this weekend will answer that in a definitive way.  […]

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