Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #43 of 2014 looks like a decent $103 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 17% above the norm for this weekend ($89 million). Opening at 2,858 theaters, Ouija from Universal grossed $8.3 million Friday and is on track for a $20.0 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our $25.0 million ShowbuzzDaily […]

  With Halloween, a traditionally slow moviegoing day, falling on Friday next week, this is the de facto Halloween movie weekend, which left a clear path for the low-budget OUIJA (Universal).  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it pulled in $8M on Friday (including over $900K from Thursday night), which should take it to a […]

[UPDATE: The predictions for the films opening this weekend have been revised, reflecting corrections to some key computations.] Weekend #43 of 2014 is looking like $100 million $109 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 23% from the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 2,700 theaters Friday (just below the 2,886 average theater […]

  OPENINGS:  The $23.5M opening for FURY (QED/Columbia/Sony) puts it at risk of being passed next weekend by the low-grade Keanu Reeves vehicle John Wick.  Fury has the distinction of being the lowest-grossing movie to open at #1 this year since Mr. Peabody & Sherman back in March, and that’s not what Brad Pitt in […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is still running -5% behind last year and -3% below the average for this point the past four years ($7.784 billion).  Over the same […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #42 of 2014 looks like a decent $123 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little lower than yesterday’s early estimate ($126 million) but still 11% above the norm for this weekend ($111 million). Opening at 3,173 theaters, Fury from Sony grossed $8.8 million Friday and $9.1 million […]

  FURY (QED/Columbia/Sony) continued to win but underwhelm on Saturday.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Brad Pitt’s somber action vehicle was up 3-4% at most from Friday, and possibly not up at all with around $9M for the day.  That’s not a great result for a film that should be appealing to older audiences […]

  OPENINGS:  FURY (Columbia/Sony) should reach $25M for the weekend after a $8.8M Friday.  Sony is claiming total costs (including worldwide marketing) of $150M, and that’s probably low by at least $25M.  With a box office total of $75M probable in the US, the movie will need overseas strength to hit profit, and luckily Brad […]