GONE GIRL (20th) should easily retain its title in its 2d weekend of release, based on preliminary numbers at Deadline.  Although the Friday race is tight between Gone Girl at $7.1M and the new DRACULA UNTOLD (Legendary/Universal) at $7M, that’s misleading, because in the odd way openings are reported in the post-Dark Knight Returns […]

  Saturday matinees, and the families who attend them, were the difference for BIG HERO 6 (Disney) this weekend.  Disney’s roly-poly new action star came back from being around $1.2M behind INTERSTELLAR (Par/Warners) on Friday to top the weekend by about $5M, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  On Saturday, Big Hero 6 jumped by […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #49 of 2014 looks like $70 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, similar to yesterday’s estimate ($69 million), down 9% the norm for this weekend ($78 million) and down 19% from the same weekend last year.   Opening at a mere 589 theaters, The Pyramid from 20th Century Fox is on track […]

The 2014 holiday box office continues to be good but not great. The top 10 films on Wednesday December 31, 2014 totaled $33.3 million, somewhat below the average $35.4 million for the days since 2002 when this date landed on a weekday.  The last time December 31 fell on a Wednesday (2008), the day’s top […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #6 of 2015 now looks like $139 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up slightly from yesterday’s estimate ($135 million) and up a bit from the norm for this weekend.   Opening at 3,641 theaters Friday, SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water from Paramount is on track for a $56.0 […]

  Franchise sequels are typically more frontloaded than the original installments, because there’s an established fanbase that wants to catch up with the latest update to the story.  For example, the first Hunger Games made $19.7M on its Thursday night, which made up part of a $67.3M opening day, while Catching Fire had $25.3M on Thursday […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal remains #1 by far and the only studio to show significant growth thanks to the Furious 7 juggernaut overseas.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is now +3% above last year and +7% above the average for this point the past four years ($2.639 billion). […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2015 now looks like $130 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than it looked yesterday but still significantly below the norm for this weekend.   Opening at 3,777 theaters Friday, San Andreas from Warner Brothers is now on track for a $53.2 million opening three-day weekend (well […]