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 […]

Weekend #23 of 2014 is looking like a pretty typical $149 million for the top 12 films this weekend, within 1% of the norm for this weekend and 4% above the same weekend last year.   Opening at over 3,000 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two […]

  OPENINGS:  MALEFICENT (Disney) is claiming a $70M weekend, and like all round-number estimates, that should be viewed with some skepticism.  But even if it dips slightly in final numbers tomorrow, it’s a fine start.  It’s not, however, the equal of Disney’s other revisionist fairy tales Alice In Wonderland ($116.1M) or Oz: The Great and […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The release of Maleficent has put Disney in a virtual three-way tie for second place (with Warner Brothers and Sony), each with around $1.35 billion worldwide for 2014 to date.  Fox remains comfortably in first place with $1.7 billion.  The other studios remain out of the running, particularly Universal, which was not helped at […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 now looks like $161 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 18% above the norm for this weekend now matching the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million late Thursday/Friday and $25.6 million Saturday, now putting the film on track […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, MALEFICENT (Disney) gained just 6% on Saturday from its Friday start, not a great bump for a family movie, giving it around $25.5M on Saturday and a weekend that now looks like it won’t quite reach $70M, more like $67M.  It’s behaving like Alice In Wonderland (up […]

  OPENINGS:  MALEFICENT (Disney) didn’t come cheap–with worldwide marketing, its price-tag will top $300M.  But it seems to be money well spent, as its $24.2M Friday should propel it into a $70M+ weekend.  It’s also launching well overseas, with $20M on Friday from 35 markets (plus $21M from some of those markets in the 2 […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 16% above the norm for this weekend but -1% from last year.   Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million Friday and late Thursday, putting the film on track for a $71.0 million opening three-day weekend (well […]