OPENINGS: Horror has been one of the more reliable genres at the pandemic box office, and CANDYMAN (MGM/Universal) opened with a solid $22.4M, buoyed by unusually good reviews (85% on Rotten Tomatoes). That offset a weaker showing overseas, where it earned $5.2M in 51 markets. HOLDOVERS: FREE GUY (20th/Disney) enjoyed its final pre-Shang Chi […]
OPENINGS: No one, including its studio, expected much from the remake of FIRESTARTER (Blumhouse/Universal, also on Peacock), and it delivered a weak $3.8M that suggests an eventual $10M US total. Economics become murky when films also premiere on streaming, but that certainly isn’t good. Things were no better overseas, where Firestarter limped to $2.1M […]
OPENINGS: KNOCK AT THE CABIN (Universal) won the eternal footnote that it was the film to finally dethrone Avatar 2 at the top of the box office, but its $14.2 start was at the low end of expectations, below the $16.8M for 2021’s Old and thus M. Night Shyamalan’s lowest opening since his pre-Sixth Sense […]
> This weekend should be another good one versus last year, up around 9%. The strongest entry looks to be Hugh Jackman and the robot boxers in Real Steel — it’s playing in a lot of theaters and we expect a very solid per screen average, giving it a forecast $26 million opening. (Aside from The Lion […]
OPENINGS: THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER (Blumhouse/Morgan Creek/Universal) was at the low end of expectations with $27.2M, and it was also below projections internationally with $17.9M in 52 markets. It’s hard to tell just what this means in terms of the bottom line, because while a $125M worldwide total wouldn’t look terrible against $30M in production […]
Weekend #19 of 2012 looks like it will be about $163 million for the top 12 films, up 26% from last year’s comparable weekend and up the same amount from the four-year average for this weekend. Only one movie dares to open against the second weekend of The Avengers phenomenon. Dark Shadows should actually have […]
OPENINGS: The box office for TWISTERS (Warners/Universal) was paradoxical. In the US, the movie strongly outperformed expectations with $80.5M. However, it showed much less appeal overseas, with $27.1M in 76 territories this weekend ($42.7M to date including some revenue from markets that opened last week). Twisters is also about to lose virtually all its […]
> The seventh weekend of 2012 is another good one, running ahead of last year and the multi-year average for this weekend. The Vow should hold on to the top spot, with Safe House a close #2, and Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance opening in third place for the weekend. This Means War is basically […]