Weekend #12 of 2015 is looking like $139 million for the top 12 films this weekend, very much in line with comparable weekends the past few years. Opening at around 3,750 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Insurgent from Lionsgate/Summit should average $15,700 per theater for the three-day […]

  OPENINGS:  JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3: PARABELLUM (Thunder Road/Summit/Lionsgate) continued the upward climb of the franchise in the US with a $57M weekend, substantially ahead of the $30.4M for Wick 2, which was above the $14.4M of the original.  If Parabellum plays out like Wick 2, it could cross $150M in the US, on costs […]

>Finally, The Help has been knocked off its perch, after facing one turd of a movie after another for four weeks.   Contagion will open at #1 with over $22 million (slightly above forecast) and headed for about $72 million domestic.  Don’t cry for The Help, though.  Its final domestic gross estimate has been upgraded yet […]

  The  preliminary numbers at Deadline confirm the expected:  PAN (RatPac-Dune/Warners) is a box office catastrophe in the making.  Its $5.2M opening day (which includes $650K from Thursday night) is less than half the first day of Fantastic Four ($11.3M), and although as a family-oriented movie it may bounce back a bit on Saturday (and […]

Despite the horrific murders in Aurora, Colorado at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises, business remained quite strong in the nation’s movie theaters throughout Friday.  The 29th weekend of 2012 is looking like $242 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up close to 50% from the multi-year average for this weekend.  Of […]

  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, […]

Life of Pi is gathering a lot of momentum overseas, with $45 million more internationally (bringing its overseas tally to $106 million to date).   Worldwide, the film is sitting at $188 million and 17th on our chart.  It could keep climbing to over $200 million, bringing it to 15th or maybe 14th on the chart. […]

  OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS (Hasbro/Paramount) launched at the higher end of tracking expectations with $60.5M.  Beasts is a much bigger-budgeted effort than its immediate predecessor, 2018’s Bumblebee (which opened with $21.7M but had a 6x multiple thanks to word of mouth and the dynamics of the Christmas box office).  More impressively, Beasts […]