STAR TREK BEYOND (Skydance/Alibaba/Huahua/Paramount) is showing a fair franchise hold by the standards of this summer.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, it had a $23M opening day (including $5.5M from Thursday), down about 26% from the start of 2009’s Star Trek reboot.  (2013’s Into Darkness opened on a Thursday, changing its weekend dynamic.)  That suggests a $57M […]

NOTE:  THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT OFFICIAL STUDIO ESTIMATES FOR CHRISTMAS DAY. There was plenty under the tree for Hollywood this Christmas Day.  The major tinsel came from LES MISERABLES (Universal), which is projected to have an enormous, overperforming $18.2M opening day.  That would be a blockbuster pace if the movie can keep […]

The Dark Knight Rises cooled to $45.6 million Saturday, down 39% from $75.1 million late-Thursday/Friday.  (In 2008, The Dark Knight dropped 29% on Saturday from Thursday/Friday, $47.7 million from $67.2 million.)  The opening weekend is now looking like an unofficial $161 million.  This would be the #3 opening all-time (behind #1 Marvel’s The Avengers at […]

  THE AVENGERS, having trampled over the opening weekend record, will easily take its second weekend in a row.  According to Deadline, it’s heading for a $29M Friday, the highest 2d Friday ever, and it should easily eclipse the Weekend 2 record currently held by Avatar with $75.6M.  Disney is estimating a $100M weekend, which […]

> Deadline has rough estimates for the weekend boxoffice, and they’re pretty much in keeping with Friday’s numbers.  The biggest surprise, if the number holds, would be that Paramount is estimating CAPTAIN AMERICA:  THE FIRST AVENGER at $65.5M, slightly below its own Thor debut of $65.7M.  The explanation may be that Saturday’s number is looking […]

  OPENINGS:  The Good Friday/Easter weekend was solid for the most part, but it lacked a major holiday opening because Avengers: Endgame is just a few days away and set to engulf box offices worldwide.  Instead, the studios offered films aimed at niches or short runs.  They were led by THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA […]

  OPENINGS:  SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK (CBS/Lionsgate) dropped 21% on its 2nd day of release, which isn’t unusual for the horror genre (recently, The Curse of La Llorona fell 26% on its Day 2, and Child’s Play was down 25%), resulting in a $20.8M weekend, and a likely $40M US total.  Scary […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #16 of 2013 is looking like $102 million for the top 12 films, down 19% from the same weekend last year and down 8% from the average the past few years for this weekend.   Opening at 3,783 theaters Friday, Oblivion from Universal grossed $13.3 million Friday and is on track for […]