Even though it’s just mid-July, Guardians of the Galaxy is the only likely blockbuster opening left this summer.  Barring some surprises, the seasonal picture is ugly. OPENINGS:  THE PURGE: ANARCHY (Universal) took Friday with $13M, but that was $3.8M below the opening day of the first Purge.  The sequel is likely to be at least […]

  There was plenty of new blood at the multiplex on Friday, but much of it was being spilled, as holdovers TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (Paramount/Nickelodeon) and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) held back a trio of new releases.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, both Turtles and Guardians were in the $7M range on […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studio rankings remain unchanged, although Warner Brothers had a nice week ($141 million worldwide the past seven days thanks to the domestic debut of Dolphin Tale 2 and a good start overseas for the sequel).  No other studio was over $100 million worldwide for the week, and most were well below that. Scroll […]

  OPENINGS:  FURY (Columbia/Sony) should reach $25M for the weekend after a $8.8M Friday.  Sony is claiming total costs (including worldwide marketing) of $150M, and that’s probably low by at least $25M.  With a box office total of $75M probable in the US, the movie will need overseas strength to hit profit, and luckily Brad […]

  OPENINGS:  The race between DUMB AND DUMBER TO (Red Granite/Universal) and Big Hero 6 may get a bit closer tomorrow, since Universal has aggressively estimated a 28% Sunday drop even though Dumb fell 2% on Saturday.  (By comparison, Beyond the Lights climbed 14% on Satuday, yet is acknowledging a 40% Sunday drop.)  But even […]

The holiday box office season is here, a revenue bonanza particularly between December 25 and January 2, when the top 10 films in North America total over $45 million per day on average.  And the top 10 totals often exceed $60 million each day between December 25 and 27.   As a baseline, we look […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #2 of 2015 looks like $110 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down from the norm for this weekend and down from the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,593 theaters Friday, Taken 3 from Fox is on track for a $39.5 million opening three-day weekend (above our $30.5 million ShowBuzzDaily […]

  Hollywood doesn’t typically open strong titles on Oscar weekend, when moviegoing is likely to fall sharply on Sunday.  So although the superfans and curiosity-seekers have already had their fill, and 50 SHADES OF GREY (Universal/Focus) wasted no time in diving from last week’s remarkable heights, the kinky romance is having no trouble with this […]