OPENINGS:  ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) eked out a Friday victory over The Hobbit, $8.7M to $8.6M, but Hobbit will likely take the weekend fairly easily, with perhaps $30M  to $27M for Anchorman.  Thanks to the holiday week coming up (Anchorman could take in $65M between Christmas and New Year’s), the comedy should top […]

  After a string of disappointments at the box office, this weekend’s franchise centerpiece looks like it will deliver.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have the opening day for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) at $17.3M (including $3M from Thursday night and $2.5M from earlier paid previews), better than the $12.1M […]

> How long before the Hunger Games sequels start arriving in 3D? THE HUNGER GAMES:  On its current trajectory toward a $350-375M US total, THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) will end up among the 15-20th biggest movies of all time, outgrossing all the Twilights and every Harry Potter except Deathly Hallows Part 2.  At $61.1M, it […]

  RIO 2 (20th/Blue Sky) appears to be losing altitude, according to preliminary box office numbers at Deadline.  The sequel reportedly climbed 30-34% on its second day of release, from $11.9M on Friday to $16M or less.  That would be a big drop from the 69% bump the first Rio had on its initial Saturday […]

  Well, bah humbug. OPENINGS:  Start the spin machine:  THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Warners/MGM) has opened with $31.1M, $6M below the start for last year’s An Unexpected Journey.  That’s more than a 15% drop, and if it continued throughout the weekend, Smaug could end up with a total around $70M.  However, the bulk […]

  Last year’s Thanksgiving weekend was the biggest ever, thanks to the combo of Catching Fire and Frozen, and while plenty of tickets were sold over the past few days, this year didn’t come close. OPENINGS:  THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (DreamWorks Animation/20th) was yet another piece of disappointing product for DreamWorks, which really needed to […]

  OPENINGS:  Although JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (Universal) is being billed as the “conclusion of the trilogy,” the studio certainly won’t be abandoning the franchise, as Dominion opened to $143.4M, almost identical to the $148M for 2018’s Fallen Kingdom, and with a very similar trajectory, down 22% on Saturday (Fallen Kingdom dropped 15%, but that was […]

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