OPENINGS:  GODZILLA (Warners/Legendary) had the opening of its dreams with $38.5M on Friday (including $9.3M from Thursday night)–higher than the openings for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($35.2M) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($36.9M).  The latter had a $95M weekend, so Godzilla is on track for $98M–but don’t be surprised if Warners seizes the opportunity […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studios are starting to separate from each other as we approach the midpoint of the year.  20th Century Fox is nearing $1.9 billion worldwide box office to date.  Fox had a decent week with an additional $148 million worldwide (mostly from the domestic release of The Fault in Our Stars).  Warner Brothers […]

  Although ticket sales were up from July 4th, preliminary numbers at Deadline indicate that they remained very soft on Saturday, and in general, current releases will be at the low end of their weekend expectations.  That starts with TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount), which climbed less than 35% on Saturday to perhaps $14.5M.  That […]

  OPENINGS:  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) has something the summer’s other blockbusters could only dream of:  weeks ahead without any A-level competition.  When the biggest titles coming up are the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Expendables 3, there’s a real opportunity to romp for the entire month of August.  With its $37.8M […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #35 of 2014 looks like $84 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 1% below the norm for this weekend ($85 million). Opening at 2,639 theaters, As Above/So Below from Universal grossed $3.2 million Friday and is on track for a $9.3 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our $10.5 million […]

  On what’s shaping up to be a very good weekend for Hollywood, the two leaders showcase different kinds of hits. OPENINGS:  ANNABELLE (New Line/Warners) took Friday with $15.5M ($2.1M from Thursday night), which is a terrific number for a movie that reportedly cost $6.5M to produce, even though the usual swollen Warners marketing campaign […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #44 of 2014 looks like $82 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 33% the norm for this weekend ($123 million), which admittedly does not usually have Halloween ruining it by falling on Friday. Opening at 2,766 theaters, Nightcrawler from Open Road Films grossed $3.2 million Friday and $4.7 million […]

  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 […]