The Dark Knight Rises cooled to $45.6 million Saturday, down 39% from $75.1 million late-Thursday/Friday.  (In 2008, The Dark Knight dropped 29% on Saturday from Thursday/Friday, $47.7 million from $67.2 million.)  The opening weekend is now looking like an unofficial $161 million.  This would be the #3 opening all-time (behind #1 Marvel’s The Avengers at […]

Weekend #32 of 2012 looks like a fairly typical second weekend of August: the last gasp of summer with three films headed for modest success.  The top 12 films this weekend should total $136 million, up substantially from last week’s disaster weekend and near the pace for the same weekend the last few years. Opening […]

The weekend after Labor Day normally has the lowest box office volume of any weekend on the calendar.  Weekend #36 of 2012 will follow this pattern, and it could be the softest weekend since 2008: only about $51 million for the top 12 films this weekend.  No film will have a weekend over $10 million, […]

Another strong weekend at the box office: this weekend is looking like it will be over 50% higher than comparable weekends in recent years (improving from the +18% weekend last week).      Taken 2 from 20th Century Fox opened with a very good $18.6 million Friday and is on pace for $50.0 million Friday-Sunday.   […]

Weekend #44 is on pace to almost match the multi-year average for this weekend and exceed the same weekend last year, which was missing an animated family film.  This year Wreck-It Ralph props up the weekend, as Megamind did on this weekend in 2010 and Madagascar 2 did in 2008.  Flight is solid but not […]

  The bloodshed in this weekend’s new arrivals extended to the movies themselves. OPENINGS:  KILLING THEM SOFTLY (Weinstein), with a $2.5M Friday, may become Brad Pitt’s lowest opening live-action wide release ever at around $7M, and it won’t be helped going forward by a shockingly bad exit poll grade of F from opening night audiences.  This […]

The weekend after Christmas offers three new films that opened Tuesday the 25th and a critical darling that went semi-wide on that day.  Les Miserables and Django Unchained are turning around the 2012 holiday season, while the other two new films are making little impact. Now playing at 2,808 theaters, Les Miserables from Universal opened with $18.1 […]

The third weekend of 2013 should total about $106 million for the top 12 films, down a bit from the same weekend the past few years.  Three movies open Friday and an Oscar hopeful expands into wide release, but no film should gross much more than $15 million Friday-Sunday. Opening in about 2,400 theaters Friday, […]