2014 has its first smash hit, as preliminary numbers at Deadline give THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) a huge $18M Friday.  Since Saturday matinees should only boost the family-oriented animated comedy-adventure, that should bring it over $60M for the weekend, and with the Presidents Day holiday dead ahead and no other family movie on the […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Sony and Universal (on the basis of sheer volume of films) is slightly ahead of Warner Brothers (the studio with the year’s only big hit so far), although three studios are very close to each other. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Warner Brothers is closing in on $800 million worldwide, while Sony and Universal remain a second tier with about $500 million worldwide.  Fox and Paramount are now in the third tier (with a little over $400 million worldwide each), thanks to Grand Budapest Hotel and Noah.  Lionsgate/Summit and Disney form the […]

  OPENINGS:  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony) is still several days from its US opening, but the superhero spectacle already has $132M in the bank after a $67.2M 2d weekend in 42 international territories–which don’t yet include such lucrative areas as China, Brazil and France.  It should be over $150M before any US ticketbuyer has […]

Weekend #21 of 2014 is looking like a very good $205 million for the top 12 films over the traditional Friday-Sunday portion of the Memorial Day weekend, 21% above the norm for this weekend (although -18% from the same weekend last year, which was fueled by sequels that opened big but couldn’t sustain).  Reminder: on […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #24 of 2014 looks like $197 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 28% above the norm for this weekend but no different than the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,306 theaters, 22 Jump Street from Sony grossed $25.0 million Friday and is on track for a $63.0 million […]

  DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th) had a good but not overwhelming Thursday night showing with $4.1M.  That’s more than triple the $1.25M for 2011″s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but it’s far from the level for this summer’s tentpole blockbusters, which ranged from $8.1M for X-Men: Days of Future […]

Weekend #32 of 2014 is looking like $152 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 11%from the norm for this weekend and the second up weekend in a row after six straight down weekends. Opening at over 3,700 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Teenage Mutant […]