OPENINGS: As studio greenlight and release strategies continue to morph, one thing that’s clear is that there will never be a shortage of low-budget horror movies.  SMILE (Paramount) is the latest successful arrival with $22M, following such recent releases as Barbarian, The Invitation, Pearl, and The Black Phone.  Although Smile will have to face […]

> Two new comedies (one adult and one family-oriented) duke it out this weekend, while Transformers: Dark of the Moon will remain on top.  The weekend as a whole should be down versus last year.   Opening at around 2,900 theaters, Horrible Bosses should average a solid $9,200 per theater (for $26.5 million for Friday-Sunday).  […]

  OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS (Hasbro/Paramount) launched at the higher end of tracking expectations with $60.5M.  Beasts is a much bigger-budgeted effort than its immediate predecessor, 2018’s Bumblebee (which opened with $21.7M but had a 6x multiple thanks to word of mouth and the dynamics of the Christmas box office).  More impressively, Beasts […]

>The fifth weekend of the year should generate about $84 million for the top 12 films — up 15% from last year’s comparable weekend but down a similar percentage from a “normal” weekend this time of year.  Three new films open this weekend to positive reviews, but none of the three should gross more than […]

  OPENINGS:  ARTHUR THE KING (Lionsgate) was clearly hoping to emulate the sleeper success of 2022’s Dog, which ran a $14.9M opening into $61.8M in the US.  However, the Mark Wahlberg vehicle came up very short with a $7.5M start.  Production/marketing costs are reportedly $60M, which will make for a tough road to profit.  Arthur […]

      THE AVENGERS:  Simply spectacular.  The 50% drop in Weekend 2 ripped past the $75M record to an amazing $103M.  The level of the weekly decline isn’t unprecedented (Avatar dropped an insane 2%, Shrek 2 33%, the original Spider-Man 38%, Alice In Wonderland and Toy Story 3 46% each), but it’s better than […]

  As is traditional, the box office for all movies aimed at young people or families slumped on Thanksgiving Day.  That kept THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART I (Lionsgate) easily on top, down 24% from Wednesday to $11.1M.  That represented a better hold than the 28% Thanksgiving drop for Catching Fire, although in actual numbers […]

> Paranormal Activity 3 is THE story at the nation’s theaters this weekend.  An opening weekend of almost $52 million (with almost $26 million in the bank Friday), blasting past Paranormal Activity 2’s $41 million opening weekend this time last year.  And yet the weekend overall is down from last year.  Blame two incredibly lame […]