We’ve reached the last of our major studio midsummer surveys (we’ll take a look at mini-majors and indie distributors next week), having tackled Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony,and 20th Century Fox.  Our final target is Universal Pictures. It was all going so well for Universal–until this weekend.  After going a remarkable 3 for 3 […]

  Sheer tonnage is keeping the total box office aloft, but on a movie-by-movie basis, things aren’t nearly as rosy. OPENINGS:  Unless things collapse today, ELYSIUM (TriStar/Sony) will do doubt report a $30M weekend tomorrow after $11.2M on Friday.  But that will be subject to downward adjustment on Monday, and in any case, it’s yet […]

Updated international box office chart:

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #40 of 2013 looks like a decent $109 million for the top 12 films, down 18% from last year’s atypical weekend but up 10% from the average for the same weekend the past few years. Opening at 3,575 theaters Friday, Gravity from Warner Brothers grossed $17.4 million Friday and is on track for […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #48 of 2013 looks like $195 million for the top 12 films from Friday-Sunday — 3% below last year’s Thanksgiving weekend but 11% above the four-year average for Thanksgiving weekend.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is on pace to score $74.5 million this weekend, and we have revised […]

  Yesterday’s studio estimate for THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) seemed high, with a Sunday drop predicted to be by far the lowest in the Top 10, so it’s not much of a surprise to see the weekend number reduced now that final figures are out, down $3M from $161.1M to $158.1M.  Even with […]

  OPENINGS:  ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) eked out a Friday victory over The Hobbit, $8.7M to $8.6M, but Hobbit will likely take the weekend fairly easily, with perhaps $30M  to $27M for Anchorman.  Thanks to the holiday week coming up (Anchorman could take in $65M between Christmas and New Year’s), the comedy should top […]

Weekend #2 of 2014 is looking like $100 million for the top 12 films, a pretty shabby total for a weekend that normal totals $125 million or more. Opening at around 2,700 theaters Friday (slightly below the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Lone Survivor from Universal should average about $8,200 per […]