OPENINGS:  GODZILLA (Warners/Legendary) had the opening of its dreams with $38.5M on Friday (including $9.3M from Thursday night)–higher than the openings for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($35.2M) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($36.9M).  The latter had a $95M weekend, so Godzilla is on track for $98M–but don’t be surprised if Warners seizes the opportunity […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studios are starting to separate from each other as we approach the midpoint of the year.  20th Century Fox is nearing $1.9 billion worldwide box office to date.  Fox had a decent week with an additional $148 million worldwide (mostly from the domestic release of The Fault in Our Stars).  Warner Brothers […]

  Although ticket sales were up from July 4th, preliminary numbers at Deadline indicate that they remained very soft on Saturday, and in general, current releases will be at the low end of their weekend expectations.  That starts with TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount), which climbed less than 35% on Saturday to perhaps $14.5M.  That […]

  OPENINGS:  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) has something the summer’s other blockbusters could only dream of:  weeks ahead without any A-level competition.  When the biggest titles coming up are the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Expendables 3, there’s a real opportunity to romp for the entire month of August.  With its $37.8M […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #35 of 2014 looks like $84 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 1% below the norm for this weekend ($85 million). Opening at 2,639 theaters, As Above/So Below from Universal grossed $3.2 million Friday and is on track for a $9.3 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our $10.5 million […]

  On what’s shaping up to be a very good weekend for Hollywood, the two leaders showcase different kinds of hits. OPENINGS:  ANNABELLE (New Line/Warners) took Friday with $15.5M ($2.1M from Thursday night), which is a terrific number for a movie that reportedly cost $6.5M to produce, even though the usual swollen Warners marketing campaign […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #46 of 2014 looks like $128 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 33% the norm for this weekend ($191 million) but up slightly (+7%) from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,154 theaters, Dumb and Dumber To from Universal grossed $14.2 million Friday and is on track for a $36.0 […]

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 -6% behind last year and -4% below the average for this point the past four years ($9.192 billion).  Over the same period, […]