The 35th weekend of 2012 is looking like $81 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, about the same as the last few Labor Day weekends.  The Possession broke out of the pack to open at #1 with an okay $16 million for the three-day portion of the holiday weekend.      The Possession from […]

Weekend #17 of 2014 is looking like a not so hot $99 million for the top 12 films, 11% below the typical volume for this weekend the past few years ($111 million).  Opening at around 3,000 theaters Friday (somewhat above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), The Other Woman from Fox should […]

  OPENINGS:  The Gerard Butler vehicle PLANE (Lionsgate) launched with $10M over the 3-day weekend ($11.6M with the Monday holiday), a sturdy number although not up to the $21.4M for Butler’s pre-pandemic Angel Has Fallen.  It hasn’t yet opened overseas. HOUSE PARTY (Warners), originally set for HBO Max, had a mild start with $3.8M ($4.5M […]

  The yummiest weekend of the year for right-wing propagandists. OPENINGS:  2016:  OBAMA’S AMERICA (Rocky Mountain) drew its core audience to the tune of $6.2M, which gave it a return in the same neighborhood as recent faith-based movies like Fireproof ($6.8M), but not nearly as high as Courageous ($9.1M).  Its per-theatre average of $5700 is […]

Updated international box office chart:

> The new PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 is off to a good start:  its $8M boxoffice from midnight shows last night was 30% higher than Paranormal 2‘s midnight performance, and in a league with Hangover 2‘s $10.4M, which is the highest ever for an R-rated title. Sequels, of course, tend to be increasingly more front-loaded, so […]

  Even if Die Hard takes the weekend, it’s running on fumes. OPENINGS:  A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (20th) cost at least triple the budget of SAFE HAVEN (Relativity), and had a more expensive marketing campaign as well.  Yet on Friday, only $75K separated the two–and that was after Safe Haven won Valentine’s Day to […]

> TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON becomes the latest franchise movie to fall short in the US compared to prior chapters of the series, despite an increased 3D ticket price.  (Like others, most notably Pirates 4, it may well make up the shortfall overseas.)  That doesn’t make a US gross of $350M anything to complain […]