OPENINGS:  ELVIS (Warners) opened at the higher end of low expectations with $30.5M.  That technically put it into a dead heat with Top Gun: Maverick for the weekend crown, although that’s misleading because like virtually all big-studio openings, Elvis essentially had a 4-day opening, while Maverick‘s weekend didn’t get to count any of its […]

>Solid opening for Bridesmaids, Priest disappoints, and Thor remains #1.  Nonetheless, the weekend is down only a bit versus last year, when Robin Hood opened and Iron Man 2’s second weekend was #1. The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates now show that Bridesmaids should finish its run with $90 million domestic (with upside), while Priest should […]

  OPENINGS:  JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (Lionsgate) roared to a $73.5M start, more than 20% higher than its predecessor Parabellum‘s $56.8M.  If it holds at that pace–and it has no direct competition until Renfield on April 14–it should become the first title in the franchise to pass $200M in the US.  (Already, Lionsgate is pushing […]

>This weekend is all about Twilight Breaking Dawn, which will be huge.  But Happy Feet Two should manage an opening that would look stellar on any other recent weekend.  Overall box office this weekend should be up 33% from the same weekend last year.         Opening at more than 4,100 theaters in North […]

  OPENINGS:  Beyonce’s concert documentary RENAISSANCE (Variance/AMC Theaters) led the traditionally slow first weekend of December with $21M, a shadow of the $92.8M for the Eras Tour movie a couple of months ago, but within expectations.  As with Eras Tour, it’s likely that the Renaissance box office will be front-loaded with fans, so the US […]

>Now 17 full weeks into 2012 (one-third of the year down already), year-to-date domestic box office is running 19% ahead of last year’s pace (down from the +22% pace last week), while the year-to-date total is now 13% ahead of the comparable period’s average for the last several years.   Updated final domestic gross estimates are […]

  OPENINGS:  A variety of studios threw product at the Labor Day weekend wall.  None of them broke through, but REAGAN (ShowbizDirect) zeroed in on its target audience–reportedly nearly 2/3 of the audience was over 55 years old, and 3/4 were white–for $7.4M over the 3-day weekend ($9.2M with Monday).  Although films appealing to older […]

> 2012 is off to a solid start with $135 million in business for the top 12 films — up 12% from a typical performance for the first weekend of the year but up sharply from the disaster that was 2011’s opening frame.  The Devil Inside exceeded our forecast and will be the #1 movie […]