Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #19 of 2014 now looks like $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, $2 million higher than yesterday’s estimate and now down 8% from the norm for this weekend (somewhat better than we expected due to the impressive strength of Neighbors).   Opening at 3,279 theaters, Neighbors from Universal grossed $19.6 million […]

  Mothers Day is a bit of a wild card this weekend, but based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, nothing on Saturday changed the way the box office is likely to play out.  NEIGHBORS (Universal) held very well, falling just 5% from Friday to around $18M.  (By comparison to other big-hit R-rated comedies, Ted dropped […]

  OPENINGS:  NEIGHBORS (Universal) is a big win for all concerned, with a huge $19.6M Friday that could put it in reach of $50M for the weekend, especially if the fact that this is a rare mainstream Hollywood non-rom-com comedy with a strong woman character gives it a boost on Mothers Day.  There’s no reason […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #19 of 2014 looks like $127 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 10% from the norm for this weekend (somewhat better than we expected due to the impressive strength of Neighbors).   Opening at 3,279 theaters, Neighbors from Universal grossed $19.6 million Friday, putting the film on track for a $49.7 […]

  It’s not going to be close, and it doesn’t deserve to be.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, the much-better-than-you’d-expect NEIGHBORS (Universal) trounced THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony) on Friday, $18M to $10M, and although Spider-Man will recoup some of that with stronger Saturday and Sunday matinees, Neighbors should hold on with […]

Weekend #19 of 2014 is looking like a weak $112 million for the top 12 films, 20% below the typical volume for this weekend the past few years ($141 million). Opening at over 3,200 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Neighbors from Universal should average $11,600 per […]

  OPENINGS:  As summer kick-off weekends go, the $92M for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony)–which may go down by $1M or so in final numbers tomorrow, given an aggressively high Sunday estimate–was pretty mild.  It came in below the openings of 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013 (above only the first Thor and the first Wolverine […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has vaulted Sony to top of the heap among the studios, with just over $1.1 billion for 2014 so far.  Disney and 20th Century Fox trail with just under $1 billion each.  Warner Brothers is next with about $900 million year to date, while Universal and Paramount […]