Strong Saturdays for both GONE GIRL (20th) and ANNABELLE (New Line/Warners) suggest that no matter who claims victory on Sunday morning, we may not really know who’s won the weekend until final numbers are available the next day.  According to preliminary box office figures at Deadline, Gone Girl climbed about 15% on Saturday to $15.3M, […]

  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 #40 of 2014 looks like $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 25% above the norm for this weekend ($104 million).  A great start for the fall movie season. Opening at 3,014 theaters, Gone Girl from 20th Century Fox grossed $13.2 million Friday and is on track for a […]

Weekend #40 of 2014 is looking like $117 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 13% from the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 3,000 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Gone Girl from 20th Century Fox should average a solid $10,600 per theater for the […]

  OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) was a bit softer on Saturday than Denzel Washington’s other hits at this box office level, up 8% compared to 11% for American Gangster and 19% for Safe House.  (Possibly because Equalizer is a terrible movie.)  That resulted in a $35M weekend that was slightly lower than Friday’s start had […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal and Sony each had weeks over $100 million, mostly because of the domestic releases of The Boxtrolls (Focus) and The Equalizer.  But both movies remain mired toward the bottom of the worldwide studio rankings. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014.   YEAR TO DATE BOX […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #39 of 2014 looks like $99 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 5% above the norm for this weekend ($95 million) and just a shade under yesterday’s estimate ($100 million). Opening at 3,236 theaters, The Equalizer from Sony grossed $12.6 million Friday and $13.6 million Saturday, now […]

  OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) was just a tad below the opening day for Denzel Washington’s Safe House, $12.6M vs. $13.6M.  That suggests a $36-37M weekend, which would be the 3rd highest of his career, behind only Safe House and American Gangster.  More impressively, it continues a remarkable record in which every movie he’s made […]