Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #43 of 2013 looks like $96 million for the top 12 films, less than forecast but still up 12% to 18% from the same weekend in recent years. Opening at 3,336 theaters Friday, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa from Paramount grossed $12.6 million Friday and is on track for a $30.0 million opening weekend […]

  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, the 600-pound gorilla of the holiday movie box office season (The Hobbit 2 is by comparison a smaller simian, at least in the US) opens tonight, and the question is just how big it will be.  The first Hunger Games opened in March 2012 and had the 6th biggest […]

  OPENINGS:  THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Warners/MGM) had a better Saturday hold than last year’s An Unexpected Journey (-22% vs. -25%), suggesting that positive word of mouth is kicking in, and no doubt easing the minds of Warners executives.  The studio’s $73.7M weekend estimate still puts it 13% below Journey‘s start, but if […]

Through 17 days of the Holiday Season (December 16-January 1), the top 10 films in North America each day have totaled $664 million, up 10.6% from last year ($600 million) and up 8.5% from the multi-year average since 2002 ($612 million). New Year’s Day added up to $47.6 million, slightly under the overall average for […]

  Just about everything in theatres this weekend is due to take a 60-70% dive on Super Bowl Sunday, which probably means that even if THAT AWKWARD MOMENT (Focus/Universal) maintains the slim current lead for Friday that it has in preliminary numbers at Deadline, it’s unlikely to stay ahead for the weekend.  At the moment, […]

Weekend #9 of 2014 is looking like an lame $102 million for the top 12 films, 33% behind the average for this weekend the past several years. With The Lego Movie returning to Earth and neither of the new movies this weekend looking like runaway hits, the box office is definitely cooling off. Opening at around […]

  Darren Aronofsky’s NOAH (Paramount) began screening at 7PM last night and took in $1.6M, a very respectable result for a serious film aimed at older and perhaps family audiences.  (No one expected it to be in a league with the $4.9M for Divergent or $3.6M for 300: Rise of An Empire.)  Because it’s one […]

  Comedy will notch one weekend win between the 3 weeks dominated by Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the parade of summer spectacles that begins with next week’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as THE OTHER WOMAN (20th) will easily take the multiplexes this weekend according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  The Other Woman earned […]