OPENINGS:  IRON MAN 3 (Disney) was exactly where it was expected to be, its $68.3M US opening day (the 8th largest ever) considerably higher than Iron Man 2‘s $51.2M, but not quite in a league with The Avengers’ $80.8M.  That should mean a $170M-ish weekend.  Meanwhile, Iron 3 has made a spectacular $388.3M internationally […]

  OPENINGS:  FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) dropped 16% on Sunday and estimates a 13% slip on Monday–that latter number may be a little overoptimistic, but even if it turns out that the 4-day total is $119M instead of $120M, it matters very little except to Universal’s press people.  FF6 was easily the 4th best […]

Updated international box office chart:

  Our summertime look at the health of Hollywood’s studios continues.  We’ve already examined Disney and Warner Bros, and today Paramount is in our viewfinder. Since getting out of both the Marvel and the DreamWorks Animation business, Paramount has been sedate, even sedentary, with the quietest summer of any studio.  Management has been fairly stable, […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. The studio rankings for worldwide box office remain the same this week, with Sony, Universal and 20th Century Fox having the most productive weeks.  Sony benefited from the domestic and especially overseas revenue from The Smurfs 2, while Universal was helped by the release of 2 Guns and the continued overseas grosses for Despicable Me 2.  Even […]

  The young, fanatically committed audience for ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (Sony) is the very definition of probable frontloading, so it’s no surprise that the concert doc debuted with a strong $2.7M last night at 7PM, the best Thursday night result since The Conjuring a month ago.  That’s almost as much as the full […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #43 of 2013 now looks like $95 million for the top 12 films, a shade under yesterday’s estimate but still up 11% to 17% from the same weekend in recent years. Opening at 3,336 theaters Friday, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa from Paramount grossed $12.6 million Friday and $11.5 million Saturday, […]

  OPENINGS:  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) came up from initial Friday estimates to $70.5M, the 7th highest single day box office in US history (behind the final Harry Potter, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, and 3 Twilights) and $3.2M ahead of the opening day for The Hunger Games.  If Catching Fire held as […]