>Holy Smurfs!  The Smurfs will exceed their estimate and Cowboys & Aliens is falling short of its prediction enough to put the two films on a course for a photo-finish at the end of the weekend.  Both films look like they will open around $36 million.  Crazy, Stupid, Love looks like $18.5 million, somewhat ahead of […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is the updated 2015 Scorecard, with Universal pulling into a very close second place (just behind Warner Brothers) thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey.  This performance from Focus and Universal is the first bit of good news in a long time for the hapless Comcast corporation, as its proposed acquisition of […]

> As schools close and vacations begin, a lot of money is about to flood into Hollywood for about 2 blissful weeks.  But not enough to make up for the rest of a doleful year. SHERLOCK HOLMES:  GAME OF SHADOWS (Warners):  With a studio estimate that just barely managed to nudge above $40M–and needed an […]

  Sunday numbers will likely be a bit stronger than usual this week due to the Columbus Day holiday tomorrow. OPENINGS:  CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Sony) didn’t even come close to taking the weekend, but its $26M is quite strong given its older-skewing star and story, not to mention the giant competition from Gravity–it’s better, for example, […]

  OPENINGS:  THE POST (DreamWorks/Reliance/Participant/20th) expanded to wide release with $18.6M over 3 days (which should become $22M with Monday).  That’s a bit better than the $15.4M 3-day start for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, which didn’t have the benefit of a holiday weekend opening.  Bridge got to $72.3M in the US, and The Post […]

  THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART I (Lionsgate) stabilized on Saturday, according to preliminary box office figures at Deadline.  The Day 2 drop was 23%, slightly better than the 25-26% Saturday drops for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.  However, at $42.1M, Mockingjay‘s Saturday was still considerably below the $50.4M/$52.6M of its predecessors, and it’s […]

>Through Monday, July 4, Team Metcalf has pulled within $60 million of Team Salem.  Metcalf will enjoy another few weeks of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and two more marginal openings before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on July 15 puts Salem back in the driver’s seat.  Next update on Friday.

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #14 of 2015 looks like $225 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, way above the norms for this weekend and setting a new record for early April. Opening at 4,004 theaters Friday, Furious 7 from Universal is on track for a $149.5 million opening three-day weekend (well above our $117.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast […]