Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #31 of 2014 looks like $173 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above our forecast ($150 million) and 34% above the norm for this weekend ($129 million). Opening at 4,080 theaters, Guardians of the Galaxy from Disney and Marvel grossed $37.7 million through Friday and is on track for a […]

  It’s not as though expectations for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) were low–at the projected $70-75M level, it would have outgrossed the opening weekends of the original Captain America, Thor and Amazing Spider-Man.  But the movie blasted past those predictions with the force of an Infinity Stone, boasting a Friday reported at Deadline and […]

  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) had a sensational $11.2M start in Thursday night shows starting at 7PM.  That’s the biggest Thursday night result of the year, edging out Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s $10.2M (although that had a slight handicap with its 8PM start time) and beating all of the summer’s other blockbusters.  It’s […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is still running -8% behind last year and now -6% below the average for this point the past four years ($5.904 billion).  Over the same […]

Weekend #31 of 2014 is looking like $150 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 16%from the norm for this weekend and the first up weekend since June 13-15.   Opening at around 3,800 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Guardians of the Galaxy from Disney and […]

  OPENINGS:  LUCY (Universal) is claiming the lowest Sunday drop in the Top 10, so the studio’s $44M weekend estimate may come down a bit tomorrow, but it’s still a very solid hit for all concerned.  That’s especially true for Scarlett Johansson, who now has non-Avenger action movie bona fides.  The only question is whether […]

  Allaying concerns about word of mouth, LUCY (Universal) held quite well in its 2d day of release, down 10% from Friday to $15M+ (better than some of the summer’s blockbusters, which fell 15% or more), according to preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere.  That should give it a weekend of $43M+.  (The studios, as […]

  OPENINGS:  Despite all the testosterone flowing through the Avengers-verse, the biggest star to emerge from the mega-franchise is turning out to be Scarlett Johansson, the latest warrior woman at the front of the box office.  This weekend she’s doing what Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth haven’t been able to pull off:  launch an unrelated […]