OPENINGS:  THE POST (DreamWorks/Reliance/Participant/20th) expanded to wide release with $18.6M over 3 days (which should become $22M with Monday).  That’s a bit better than the $15.4M 3-day start for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, which didn’t have the benefit of a holiday weekend opening.  Bridge got to $72.3M in the US, and The Post […]

  Box office discussions about AVENGERS: ENDGAME (Marvel/Disney) will revolve around records broken and those likely to fall.  The first to go was the Thursday night record, which is now $60M (beating The Force Awakens‘s $57M and 54% above Infinity War‘s $39M), and now preliminary numbers at Deadline have Endgame‘s Thursday/Friday at $157M, absolutely smashing […]

  There were no surprises at the Thursday box office, and certainly no pleasant ones for the previous day’s openings.  Ticket sales won’t have the usual Friday pop today, as many have other plans for the 4th of July, but Saturday should rebound nicely. OPENINGS:  All of the Wednesday arrivals dropped on their 2d day […]

  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 […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #12 of 2014 looks like $131 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, very similar to the same weekend last year and 8% below the average for this weekend the past several years.   Opening at 3,936 theaters late Thursday, Divergent from Lionsgate/Summit grossed $22.8 million through Friday, putting the film on track […]

  Liam Neeson, superstar. OPENINGS:  TAKEN 2 (20th) is on track for an opening in the high-$40Ms, which would make it the biggest weekend #1 since late July’s 2nd weekend of The Dark Knight Rises.  Since the movie only cost around $45M to produce (not including substantial marketing costs), it’s already assured of success, and […]

>Team Metcalf is now $102 million ahead of Team Salem in the first annual Summer Movie Draft.  The weekday business of Transformers 3 the next few days will push the margin a little higher, but the opening weekend of the final Harry Potter Friday will erase these recent gains and position Salem for a commanding […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is still +2% above last year and still +4% above the average for this point the past four years ($5.698 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $16.3 […]