WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is still -1% below last year and still +11% above the average for this point the […]

  VENOM (Tencent/Columbia/Sony) is the first big-budget action movie to open since The Meg in mid-August, and that (plus a huge marketing campaign) seems to have gotten it past murderous reviews for an enormous start, the biggest ever in October.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $32.3M (including $10M from a Thursday that […]

UPDATE (19 days Dec 16-Jan 3): $757 million for the top 10 films in North America each day, now -6.5% below the average holiday box office since 2007 ($810 million over this span), ending up well below the pace of 2015-2017 when a Star Wars film anchored the holiday season but slightly above the pace of 2012-2014 […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is now -19% below last year’s comparable span (1 point worse than last week) and still -16% below the average for this point the past four years ($2.752 billion).  Over the same […]

  OPENINGS:  CRAWL (Paramount) may be an example of a studio outsmarting itself.  Paramount held no critics screenings, presumably because disdain was expected, and thus was unable to create any advance buzz around a response that turned out to be remarkably enthusiastic (88% on Rotten Tomatoes).  The result was a tepid $12M opening, and since […]

  OPENINGS:  MIDWAY (AGC/Bona/Lionsgate) was mildly ahead of expectations with $17.5M in the US, and it should perform well on Veterans Day Monday.  However, with around $150M in production and worldwide marketing costs, a $60M US total would leave it with a steep uphill climb to reach profitability.  Early overseas results weren’t particularly promising at […]

  OPENINGS:  In the US, ONWARD (Pixar/Disney) was merely a disappointment by Pixar standards, with an OK 37% Saturday bump that allowed it to claim a $40M weekend, pending actuals on Monday.  That isn’t much better then the $34.7M launch for last year’s Lego Movie 2, and it’s far off last March’s $55M for How […]

  OPENINGS:  RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (Disney, also on Disney+) launched with $8.6M in theatres, and while it also earned (undisclosed) income from super-premium VOD through Disney+, that number was notably lower than last week’s $14.1M for Tom & Jerry, which premiered simultaneously on HBO Max.  Raya was supposed to benefit from the reopening […]