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 […]

NOTE:  THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT OFFICIAL STUDIO ESTIMATES FOR CHRISTMAS DAY. There was plenty under the tree for Hollywood this Christmas Day.  The major tinsel came from LES MISERABLES (Universal), which is projected to have an enormous, overperforming $18.2M opening day.  That would be a blockbuster pace if the movie can keep […]

  OPENINGS:  With a $10M production budget (and tens of millions in marketing on top), the $10.6M weekend for SINISTER 2 (Blumhouse/Gramercy/Focus/Universal) will test Blumhouse’s ability to make money out of just about anything.  The opening is far below the $18M start for 2012’s Sinister, and its US total won’t be near the $48.1M gross […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #8 of 2014 looks now like $98 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, slightly below this weekend’s average the past several years but well above last year’s weak showing this weekend.  Two new films misfired this weekend, while Lego Movie continues to reign supreme (although now looking […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #11 of 2015 now looks like $124 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up solidly from the norms for this weekend.   Opening at 3,845 theaters Friday, Cinderella from Disney is on track for a $70.1 million opening three-day weekend (near our $69.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). The film […]

> Normally a relatively quiet period, the weekend before Halloween usually offers only one new release and well under $100 million in total volume for the top 12 movies.  But this year, we have three releases, with one poised to do solid business.  Puss In Boots should do well over $40 million in its opening […]

  UPDATE:  More refined Wednesday numbers are in via The Hollywood Reporter, and the major difference from the numbers below was for SILVER LININGS NOTEBOOK, which made $656K rather than $550K. still off the pace of last year’s The Descendants, which had a very similar release pattern.  Also, RED DAWN made $4.2M rather than $4.5M, […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE CONJURING (Warners) might be headed for the biggest horror opening of the year.  It reportedly pulled in $16.5M on Thursday night/Friday, neck-and-neck with the $16.8M that The Purge made on its opening day.  But Conjuring has the kind of strong reviews and exit polls that suggest it might […]