With little else of interest around, audiences are flocking to a movie they know they’ll enjoy:  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney), already the top movie of the year in the US, had a superb $6.1M Saturday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, up 60% from Friday and down only 19% from last Saturday.  That […]

  OPENINGS:  AS ABOVE/SO BELOW (Universal) cost just $5M to produce, but its big-studio marketing campaign will add at least $30M to that, and after a $3.2M Friday, it’s headed for $9.5M by Sunday and $11.5M for the 4-day holiday, which will likely give it $20M at best for its entire US theatrical run.  Those […]

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 […]

  Labor Day Weekend is the only holiday that doesn’t make people gravitate to the movies, and this year will be no exception.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the 5-week old GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney), newly anointed as America’s #1 film of 2014 at approximately $262M (although it will never catch up with […]

Weekend #35 of 2014 is looking like $95 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 11% from the norm for this weekend and on track to be the fifth up weekend in a row after six straight down weekends. Opening at around 2,500 theaters Friday (below the 2,886 average theater count for opening […]

  OPENINGS:  IF I STAY (Warners/MGM) was the best of a weak trio, opening with $16.4M and with an 18% drop on Saturday that indicated moderate front-loading.  It should reach a fair $40-50M US total, which could get it to breakeven if not profit. WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL (Affirm/TriStar/Sony), with a $9M weekend, was […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Again, no changes to the year to date studio ranking of worldwide box office.  20th Century Fox remains #1 and also had the largest gain this week (an okay $87 million weekly gain, mostly because of continued overseas grosses of How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes).  Disney, […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #34 of 2014 now looks like $105 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($103 million) but still somewhat below our forecast ($111 million) and still a robust 17% above the norm for this weekend ($86 million). Opening at 2,907 theaters, If I […]