An oddity of this year’s box office is that while a few very big hits (American Sniper, 50 Shades of Grey, The SpongeBob Movie) have pushed the total 2015 take well above last year’s start, there have been no shortage of high-profile failures alongside them, including Mortdecai, Jupiter Ascending, Focus and Blackhat.  Add to […]

OPENINGS:  THE LONGEST RIDE (20th) tried to counterprogram Furious 7 with a Nicholas Sparks romance, but didn’t even muss the blockbuster’s hair with a $13.5M opening.  That’s better than the lousy $10M start for last year’s Sparks adaptation The Best Of Me, and that’s the sum total of the positives in the context of other […]

  OPENINGS:  PITCH PERFECT 2 (Gold Circle/Universal) blew past even the highest of expectations, outgrossing the entire US run of its predecessor with a $70.3M weekend, and proving not to be all that frontloaded with a 12% Saturday drop.  In addition, with a gradual international roll-out in just 29 markets, the movie earned $26.9M, which […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #26 of 2015 now looks like $175 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, better than it looked yesterday and closer to hitting the norms for this weekend.  Jurassic World and Inside Out look stronger than they appeared yesterday, while the weekends for both openers have been downgraded slightly […]

  OPENINGS:  MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION (Skydance/China Film Channel/Alibaba/Paramount) had a solid Saturday hold, down 3% from Friday, and the studio is projecting a $56M weekend in the US, well ahead of the $47.7M opening of Mission 3, the only other entry in the series to have a conventional Friday opening.  (However, in 2006 movies […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is now +6% above last year and now +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.066 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $18.6 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

For the 15 days December 16-30, top 10 films in North America have totaled $942 million, now +68% ahead of the same period last year, +73% above the average since 2002, and +36% ahead of the previous record for this period (2009, the year of Avatar). Box Office Volume — Top 10 Films North America ($ […]

Weekend #9 of 2016 is looking like $98 million for the top 12 films this weekend, somewhat below the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND February 26-28, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Gods of Egypt LG PG13 n/a 11.5 30 175 […]