Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #2 of 2014 looks like $121 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 12% from the average for the same weekend the past few years (but better than we forecast earlier this week). Opening at 2,876 theaters Friday, Lone Survivor from Universal grossed $14.4 million Friday, putting the Peter Berg-directed Afghanistan War […]

>Two new films open this weekend, a formulaic romantic comedy from director Garry Marshall and an R-rated comedy starring Jonah Hill that looks like it will come and go very quickly.  New Year’s Eve will be #1 this weekend but not at a particularly impressive level.  And none of the Thanksgiving holdovers look to gross […]

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give the Valentine’s Day boxoffice edge to, appropriately enough, the Nicholas Sparks sudsfest SAFE HAVEN (Relativity), probably at the expense of many unwilling spouses and significant others.  The soap is reported to have taken in around $10M for the day.  It will probably fall as the weekend shifts from Valentine’s […]

  The failure of ALLEGIANT (Summit/Lionsgate) puts its studio in an unusually awkward position.  Even though Lionsgate may be able to put the 3rd Divergent movie on its books as a profit (most of the international rights were pre-sold, providing revenues that can off-set the oncoming US losses), the economics are going to get much […]

The weekend looks like a decent $124 million for the top 12 films, a little softer than it looked yesterday (but still significantly ahead of the comparable weekends the last few years).  Paranormal Activity 4 gets a little weaker each day and now is projected to total $30.2 million in its opening weekend, although don’t be surprised if […]

  The Hollywood Reporter has the Thursday boxoffice for STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS (Paramount) at $13.5M, which given the strong reviews and general hype would be a tad disappointing.  Comparisons with the 2009 Star Trek are tricky, because that opened on Thursday night/Friday rather than Wednesday night/Thursday (Star Trek had a $30.9M opening for its […]

  OPENINGS:  In the US, DADDY’S HOME 2 (Paramount) eked out a victory among the newcomers at $30M, thanks to a 6% family audience bump on Saturday.  That’s still 22% below the opening for the first Daddy’s Home, and it’s likely that spread will increase greatly through the week, since the original comedy opened on […]

  OPENINGS:  Playing in 44 markets that represent a bit over half the world (and not including China), AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (Marvel/Disney) has already romped to $201.2M in advance of its US opening.  International comparisons are tricky, due to variations in release pattern and exchange rates, but Disney claims this puts Ultron 44% ahead […]