No changes in the studio rankings this week, the top two studios had enormous weeks (each around $250 million) from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (Warner Brothers) and Frozen (Disney), with each film experiencing a significantly upgraded domestic total forecast and very big grosses overseas.  For a complete ranking of 2013 films individually by worldwide performance click here. TOTAL NORTH […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2014 now looks like $97 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($94 million) and now 4% below the average for the comparable weekend the past few years. Opening at 2,753 theaters Friday, I, Frankenstein from Lionsgate/Summit grossed a tiny $2.8 million Friday […]

  THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) is barely even being challenged by the newcomers this weekend, and it will easily reign supreme over the multiplexes for its 3rd win in a row.  Preliminary numbers at Variety and Deadline have Lego at $7M+ on Friday, and while that’s down from last Friday’s $12.8M (all holdovers will be sharply […]

  We won’t have confirmed Saturday numbers for several more hours (or final figures until Monday), but based on preliminary grosses at Deadline, DIVERGENT (Summit/Lionsgate) held surprisingly well on its second day of release, down just 14% to $19.7M.  That would be far better than the Day 2 drop for the original Twilight (down 41%), […]

  Despite the arrivals of a quartet of newcomers, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney/Marvel) appears in the preliminary numbers at Deadline to be having no trouble keeping its lead for a third consecutive weekend.  Its $10M Saturday was down only about 40% from last week, and should give it a $26M weekend, lifting its […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The release of Neighbors has pushed Universal out of the Paramount and Lionsgate/Summit pack to 5th place among Hollywood studios year to date in worldwide box office (with just under $800 million).  Sony sits at #1 with close to $1.3 billion worldwide in 2014 to date, with Amazing Spider-Man 2 still producing significant overseas revenue. […]

  THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (20th) was expected to get off to a quick start, thanks to its wildly enthusiastic young female fanbase, and it did:  $8.2M, a huge number for a non-special effects movie.  (It includes shows at 650 theatres with $25 tickets that bought fans a closed-circuit interview with cast and crew […]

  MONDAY UPDATE:  In the face of widespread industry skepticism, Paramount is sticking to its claim that TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION earned $100M last weekend–actually, $100,038, 390.  (The consensus is that the real number is $97-98M.)  Here’s the way the system works:  the vast majority of US theatres report their results to the 3rd-party company […]