OPENINGS:  Even with a big Mother’s Day bump of 24% (the same as last year’s Snatched), the $18.5M weekend for LIFE OF THE PARTY (New Line/Warners) is the lowest of Melissa McCarthy’s starring career, and even lower than Snatched‘s $19.5M.  The Mother’s Day bump means that next weekend’s drop will likely be dramatic, and […]

> BREAKING DAWN PART 1:  Although BD1 had greater declines on Friday (as opposed to Thursday midnight) and Saturday than New Moon did in 2009, Summit’s weekend estimate assumes exactly the same 34% drop for Sunday.  So it’s possible their $139.5M figure could come down a bit in the actuals tomorrow (which could move the […]

The second annual ShowBuzzDaily Summer Movie Draft still looks like a runaway for Team Metcalf ($518.9 million total through Sunday versus about $25 million each for Teams Salem and Weil), but the early lead is really a function of Metcalf’s slate being heavily weighted toward May and June releases.  The lead will only get bigger […]

  OPENINGS:  NOW YOU SEE ME (Summit/Lionsgate) had a fine $28.1M opening weekend considering its moderate cost ($75M plus marketing, but with 2/3 of that covered by foreign pre-sales), and with little competition coming next week, it could have a solid hold–plus it’s exactly the kind of light entertainment that thrives on home viewing platforms.  […]

  On Friday, the big alien robots blew things up. OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount) got the Friday it was hoping for, the biggest day of 2014 at $41.6M, and one that gives the blockbuster a strong (although not certain) chance to hit the magic $100M mark on Sunday.  In addition, Transformers 4 earned $52M […]

Weekend #16 of 2015 is looking like $119 million for the top 12 films this weekend, right in line with the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 3,600 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 from Sony should average $6,900 per theater for the […]

The 35th weekend of the year is looking like $83 million for the top 12 films, exactly in line with the Friday-Sunday portions of recent Labor Day weekends and among the three or four weakest weekends of the entire year.  After all, this is the weekend that has spawned Oogieloves and Shark Night 3D among other […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #10 of 2014 now looks like $131 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, slightly ahead of the the average for this weekend the past few years. Opening at 3,470 theaters Friday, 300: Rise of an Empire from Warner Brothers grossed $17.6 million Friday and $16.2 million Saturday, putting the film […]