The latest underperforming franchise entry is TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS (Nickelodeon/Movie Media Group/Alibaba/Paramount).  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $11.6M, down 55% from the $25.6M start for the rebooted TMNT 2 years ago.  That suggests a weekend that may not hit $30M, and a US total under $100M.  […]

  Franchises are the lifeblood of Hollywood, so it has to chill studios to see three of those entries falter in a single 2-weekend period, especially since the stakes are higher for this week’s arrivals than last week’s Neighbors 2. Based on the preliminary $27M Friday number at Deadline, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (TSG/20th) is running almost […]

  THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE (Rovio/Sony) is keeping the momentum going at the early summer box office, with a preliminary Friday, per Deadline, at $11M.  That’s almost exactly the same opening day as Sony’s Hotel Transylvania, which had a $42.5M weekend and ended up at $148.3M in the US and another $210.1M overseas.  It’s too […]

  If preliminary numbers at Deadline hold, the Weekend 2 drop for CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (Marvel/Disney) will be in line with comparable superhero epics.  Its second Friday looks like $19.5M, which would be down about 74% from last week’s opening day.  That compares to Friday-to-Friday drops of 75% for Avengers: Age of Ultron, 71% […]

  Deadline is reporting a preliminary opening day of around $75M (including $25M from Thursday night) for CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (Marvel/Disney), and one has to wonder:  are audiences getting the teensiest bit tired of superhero spectacles?  That $75M is a giant number, of course–it blows away the $36.9M that Captain America: Winter Soldier earned […]

  With summer blockbuster season just days away, none of the studios brought their A game this weekend.  KEANU (New Line/Warners) isn’t going to do for Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele what Trainwreck did for Comedy Central colleague Amy Schumer:  Trainwreck earned $10.7M on its opening day, and based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, Keanu […]

  How much more humiliating can things get for Warners?  On Friday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE BOSS (Universal), which isn’t even a high-performing Melissa McCarthy vehicle, beat up both the studio’s superheroes with about $7.5M.  The Boss will likely have trouble sustaining itself over the weekend, but at about $20M+, it will […]

  The real world, in the form of terrible reviews and dim word of mouth, caught up with BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (DC/RatPac/Warners) on Friday.  Actually, the signs had been there since midweek, although Warners and its box office pets had obscured the fact for a few days by comparing the daily results […]