Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #33 of 2014 looks like a modest $124 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, below our forecast ($140 million) and 7% above the norm for this weekend ($116 million). Playing at 3,094 theaters, Let’s Be Cops from Fox grossed $5.6 million Friday and is on track for a $17.1 million opening […]

  OPENINGS:  The Gerard Butler vehicle PLANE (Lionsgate) launched with $10M over the 3-day weekend ($11.6M with the Monday holiday), a sturdy number although not up to the $21.4M for Butler’s pre-pandemic Angel Has Fallen.  It hasn’t yet opened overseas. HOUSE PARTY (Warners), originally set for HBO Max, had a mild start with $3.8M ($4.5M […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #26 of 2013 now looks like $185 million for the top 12 films, up a bit from yesterday’s $181 million estimate and still very close to the same weekend in recent years.   Opening at 3,181 theaters Friday, The Heat from 20th Century Fox grossed $13.6 million Friday and $14.3 million […]

  ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (Columbia/Sony), the summer’s great adult-oriented, non-franchise, auteur/movie star hope, had a solid start per preliminary numbers at Deadline with a $16.7M opening day (including $5.8M from Thursday night).  That’s the biggest opening of Quentin Tarantino’s career, higher than the $14.4M for Inglourious Basterds and the $15M for Django […]

  Unless the world comes to an abrupt end in the next few hours, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is going to start earning more money than The Joker set on fire in the last Batman film.  But how much?  Can Rises set records this weekend?  Our resident expert says probably not, because Christopher Nolan’s film […]

> The seventh weekend of 2012 is another good one, running ahead of last year and the multi-year average for this weekend.  The Vow should hold on to the top spot, with Safe House a close #2, and Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance opening in third place for the weekend.  This Means War is basically […]

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 down -2% from last year and still +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($8.536 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed […]

  The weekend box office race may end up being quite close once matinees come into play, but NIGHT SCHOOL (Perfect World/Universal) took Friday, with preliminary numbers at Deadline putting it at $9.3M for the day (including $1.4M from Thursday night).  That’s below the $13M Friday for Kevin Hart’s Central Intelligence, and $12.9M for Get […]