OPENINGS:  A bit surprisingly, LONE SURVIVOR (Universal) had no Saturday bump to speak of (under 1%), giving it a more frontloaded weekend than a movie appealing to an older audience (which tends not to run out on opening night) with strong reviews might be expected to have.  American Hustle, by way of comparison, went […]

  If preliminary numbers at Deadline hold, what was supposed to be a fairly competitive box office weekend will instead be a romp for THE BUTLER (Weinstein).  It’s claiming a $9M Friday, which should give it at least $25M for the weekend.  That would be in line with the $26M opening for The Help in mid-August […]

The 31st weekend of 2012 is looking like a soft $115 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 27% from the same weekend last year.  Dark Knight Rises stays at #1 as two new films fail to impress.             Total Recall from Sony grossed $9.1 million Friday, on a pace […]

Weekend #13 of 2015 is looking like $123 million for the top 12 films this weekend, slightly below the comparable weekends the past few years. Opening at around 3,150 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Get Hard from Warner Brothers should average $9,200 per theater for the three-day weekend (for […]

The 37th weekend of the year is looking like $81 million for the top 12 films, very close to the multi-year average for this weekend. Opening at around 2,900 theaters Friday (just above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Insidious Chapter 2 from FilmDistrict and director James Wan should average $11,300 per theater for […]

> Oops.  The weekend forecasts were way too high for the sequels Sherlock Holmes 2 and Alvin and the Chipmunks 3.  The holiday season that was supposed to save 2011 (or at least make the year a little less embarrassing) is shaping up to be a major disappointment.  This weekend (when the box office should […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #50 of 2014 looks like $76 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down a horrible 40% from the norm for this weekend ($127 million) and down 46% from the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,503 theaters, Exodus: Gods and Kings from 20th Century Fox grossed $8.6 million Friday and is […]

  Pixar is still Pixar, but the Disney Animation division of the studio (also headed by John Lasseter) is proving that it’s a formidable creator of animated features as well, following Frozen with the smashingly imaginative ZOOTOPIA (Disney).  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, Zootopia had a $18M Friday (including $1.7M from Thursday night), and […]