The three weeks around Christmas (December 16-January 5) and especially the nine days including both the Christmas and New Year’s Day holiday (December 25-January 2) represent an enormous box office opportunity each year.  Over the last eight years, the December 16-January 5 period has averaged $717 million for the top 10 films, while the heart […]

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 […]

  After a moratorium on official boxoffice pronouncements due to the tragic events in Colorado, Warners has officially released the weekend boxoffice figure for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES:  $160.9M.  This is where the unofficial weekend estimates had the picture, although it’s 10-20% below the pre-release expectations for the film.  That was also largely the case […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +2% above last year and still +3% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.476 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $24.8 billion worldwide […]

  OPENINGS:  There have been a lot of busted franchises this summer, but ANNABELLE: CREATION (New Line/Warners) held strong, with a $35M opening weekend that was down just 5% from the first Annabelle.  The new entry is considerably more frontloaded than the first, down 22% on Saturday compared to 10%, which may mean a US […]

  OPENINGS: The weekend belonged to Bond.  James Bond.  SKYFALL (Sony/MGM) had by far the biggest start for any Bond movie in the US, with an estimated $87.8M.  That’s more than $20M ahead of the previous record-holder, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall will have far better legs than Solace, as shown by its up day […]

  HOLDOVERS:  On a weekend without new wide releases, COCO (Pixar/Disney) had no trouble holding its crown with $26.1M.  Its 49% drop from Thanksgiving weekend was better than other Disney animations in that slot (50% for Moana, 56% for Tangled, 53% for Frozen), and it should be on track for $225M+ in the US.  Coco […]

  OPENINGS:  NOBODY (Universal) had a fair start at $6.7M, better than the $4.1M opening for Let Him Go and the $3.1M for The Marksman.  Following the Universal pattern it will hit premium VOD after 2 more weekends, and may hope to reach $20M in US theatres.  Overseas, it launched with $5M. The much bigger […]