> THE HUNGER GAMES has an excuse. Last night at midnight, The Hunger Games began its long-awaited run in theatres by grossing $19.7M.  Which is, by any estimation, a lot of money–the most ever earned by a non-sequel, and the 7th highest midnight ever.  But… it’s less than half the $43.5M of the midnight record […]

> The summer movie season is starting with a bang:  according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE AVENGERS (Disney) is off to a $70M opening day.  If that number holds, it’ll be the #4 opening day of all time, behind only the final Harry Potter and 2 Twilights, and slightly ahead of, among others, The […]

The weekend continues to look very similar to the way it did yesterday morning.  Brave now looks like a $66.7 million opening weekend, according to the studio estimate this morning (exceeding our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  Animation takes the second spot this weekend, with Madagascar 3 on track for over $20 million, a […]

  It may be unseemly even to discuss the dollars and cents of movie boxoffice as we all recoil and try to get a grasp on the terrible events that took place in Colorado last night.  Such dreadful aspects of real life should have no place in what was supposed to be a weekend of […]

The weekend is looking almost exactly like it appeared yesterday with Total Recall and especially Diary of Wimpy Kid 3 struggling to make an impact, while The Dark Knight Rises holds on at #1.   The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates for films opening wide this weekend:  Total Recall ($66 million) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days ($41 million). […]

  OPENINGS:  THE POSSESSION (Lionsgate) is doing quite well for a low-budget horror quickie, with $17.7M for the 1st 3 days of the holiday weekend, and is on track to be the #2 Labor Day opening ever, behind only the 2007 remake of Halloween.  LAWLESS (Weinstein Company), though, at $9.7M, is behind last year’s The […]

Audiences decide they want to see movies again. OPENINGS:  With the market starved for family entertainment (the last major animated opening was Ice Age 4 back in July), HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (Sony) and its $43M smashed the September opening record and the Sony Animations record, and comes in just behind Shark Tale as the biggest animated […]

  The biggest boxoffice story of the weekend happened overseas:  in only 25 international markets, SKYFALL (Sony) the new James Bond, has opened at a scorching, record-setting pace, with a reported $77.7M in 3 days (including $32.4M in the UK alone).   The movie doesn’t open in the US for 2 weeks, but it’s already kicking […]