Beware of studio estimates and round numbers. OPENINGS:  In order to get MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) to a round $70M for the 4-day weekend, the studio had to claim the lowest Monday drop of the market’s Top 9 films–even though MIB3 hasn’t shown any particular strength with the family matinee audience (its […]

> In future weeks, we’ll have a spiffy chart to keep you current on the progress of our Summer Movie Blockbuster Draft, but for now it’s pretty simple: Team Metcalf THOR:  $84,752,317 Team Salem $0 Over at Team Salem, I’d like to note that this somewhat lopsided total is because none of my movies have […]

> Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens huge overseas, almost topping Fast Five in its first weekend.    The table below shows the domestic and international grosses for the Top 25 films (out of the 47 movies released between January and April at over 500 theaters).  Fast Five is still the #1 film worldwide released between January and […]

> TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON becomes the latest franchise movie to fall short in the US compared to prior chapters of the series, despite an increased 3D ticket price.  (Like others, most notably Pirates 4, it may well make up the shortfall overseas.)  That doesn’t make a US gross of $350M anything to complain […]

>With over $3 billion of summer box office through Wednesday, only $53 million separates Teams Metcalf and Salem.  Metcalf’s slate of movies leads with $1.59 billion versus $1.54 billion for Salem’s.  Only one film (30 Minutes or Less) is left to open, and Salem should enjoy a strong second weekend for Rise of the Planet […]

> Let’s take a look at just how remarkably THE HELP is performing so far.   The most obvious points of comparison are the literary-sourced, female-skewing hits of the last 2 Augusts:  Julie & Julia in 2009, and last year’s Eat Pray Love.  Julia had a $20M opening that led to a $94M domestic gross; Eat […]

> Deadline has some early Saturday and weekend numbers, the highlight of which is that REAL STEEL is claiming a 40% Saturday bump, which would lead it to a $29M weekend, somewhat higher than expected.  Since Steel is a family movie, a big increase for matinees is possible, but we’ll see if it bears out […]

> HUGO: The boxoffice story of the holiday was undoubtedly Martin Scorsese’s quasi-family film.  While almost every other film of the day fell steeply or at best held around even, Hugo zoomed an astonishing 40%  This probably reflects to some extent the older audience for the picture, but The Descendants, which has a similar appeal, […]