J and K aren’t the only ones wearing black today. OPENINGS:  In what’s starting to look like a bad summer for any movie not called The Avengers, MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) opened with a subpar $18M on Friday.  Sony is doing the only thing it can do, which is to point at […]

> John Carter traveled to Mars; the movie with his name also looks beyond the US for some help. OPENINGS:  JOHN CARTER (Disney) may or may not have grossed over $30M this weekend–we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.  (Disney is claiming a not-unreasonable 31% Sunday drop, but it would take only a small slip to […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.  Note: We have amended the summary categories somewhat this year with the top category now reserved for films over $500 million worldwide and the lower category for films under $150 million worldwide.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date […]

  OPENINGS:  THE REVENANT (Regency/20th) had an impressive $38M start, the #5 January wide opening ever (although tomorrow’s final numbers could send it below Lone Survivor‘s $37.8M, the comp it wanted to beat).  Survivor made it to $125.1M, and Revenant could do the same, especially fueled by what now seems like a can’t-miss campaign for […]

  OPENINGS:  RIDE ALONG 2 (Universal) is projecting a $39.5M 4-day weekend, 19% below the $48.6M opening of the first Ride Along exactly 2 years ago.  That would put its US trajectory at $100-110M, enough to make it a fine piece of business for all concerned, but any growth would have to come from overseas, […]

  This may be a good time to pause the stories about Disney’s infalliability, and the unstoppable dominance of the Star Wars franchise.  SOLO (Lucasfilm/Disney) is underperforming in a big way, with preliminary numbers at Deadline putting its opening day at $36.5M, extremely frontloaded with $14.1M of that total from Thursday night.  That’s the lowest […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +6% above last year and still +9% above the average for this point the past four years ($2.745 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $7.8 billion […]

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 […]