The movie business rebounded from Halloween on Saturday, with substantial gains for just about everything.  Somewhat surprisingly, the second weekend of OUIJA (Blumhouse/Universal) is challenging the new release NIGHTCRAWLER (Open Road) for the diminished weekend’s honors.  Ouija overperformed early estimates on Friday, pulling ahead with $3.5M to Nightcrawler‘s $3.2M.  According to preliminary numbers at […]

  OPENINGS:  The weekend’s awful weather is being given the blame for a subpar Christmas holiday box office, but the fact remains that audiences appeared unenthused (or worse) about the new offerings.  PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) fared best, with $11.4M for the 3-day weekend, $17.8M with Monday, and $24.6M since its […]

>The 13th weekend of the year should be very strong: about $169 million for the top 12 films up 49% from last year’s comparable weekend and up 32% from the four-year average for this weekend.  Wrath of the Titans should open just below $40 million, far behind the pace of Clash of the Titans from […]

  OPENINGS:  The big box office news of this weekend happened overseas, where THE HOBBIT:  THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (New Line/MGM/Warners) has already opened in 37 territories to a massive $117.6M in advance of its US launch next week.  The Hobbit movies have done overwhelmingly well overseas, with the previous installments earning respectively […]

  OPENINGS:  US (Blumhouse/Perfect World/Universal) slipped 12% on Saturday, and while that doesn’t compare to Get Out‘s amazing 17% increase on its 2nd day of release, it’s in the range of the 11% drop for It, and better than the 18% for both The Conjuring and the 2018 Halloween.  That pushed Us to a $70.3M […]

  SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMAN (Universal) had a 5% Friday-to-Saturday bump, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, which doesn’t say much for its word of mouth (the dreaded Battleship went up 11% on its second day of release).  That should still get Snow safely into the mid-$50Ms for the weekend, and now, like most […]

  MONDAY UPDATE:  Father’s Day was a holiday, all right… for some movies.  22 JUMP STREET vastly overestimated its appeal to dads, taking a sizable 30% hit on Sunday and falling an ugly $3M below its original weekend number to $57.1M.  HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 was also a bit weaker than expected, down […]

  HOME (DreamWorks Animation/20th) should soothe the embattled studio and its investors a bit.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Home earned $15M on Friday, almost double the $8M start for DWA’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and almost in a league with the $18.8M first day for How To Train Your Dragon 2.  That should […]