What are we to make of the first meaningful box office numbers to come our way since March?  The area is a landscape of spin in the best of times, and these of course are not those.  Other than drive-ins, heatres remain closed in several major US markets (including both NY and LA), and […]

  OPENINGS:  The only new arrival in wide US release was the woebegone VOYAGERS (Lionsgate), which got a minimal push from its studio and opened at a low $1.4M, fated for $5M or so in the US. The major new international opening was MORTAL KOMBAT (Warners), which brought in $10.7M from 17 territories.  It opens […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LOST CITY (Paramount) opened at the high end of expectations at $31M, a particularly solid result these days for a movie that skews both female and older (the latter crowd evident in the 2% Friday-to-Saturday rise).  Lost City faces little challenge in its target demo for the next month, so it could […]

  OPENINGS:  VIOLENT NIGHT (Universal) slightly overperformed with $13.3M in the US, and with its $20M production budget, it may be headed for breakeven or perhaps moderate profit.  However, worldwide marketing costs are likely to add another $40M+ to that tally, and the thriller had much less appeal overseas, with $7.1M in 72 territories. The […]

>Accurate theater counts are in, and we have adjusted the per theater averages, as well as updated critical sentiment as we head into the very slow Labor Day weekend. Apollo 18 opens today at 3,328 theaters, and we expect a low $4,000 average per theater this weekend (Friday-Sunday only, as we always do).  We have […]

  OPENINGS:  The 3-day weekend in the US went narrowly to MEG 2: THE TRENCH (CMC/Warners) with $30M.  That was down more than 1/3 from the $45.4M start for The Meg in 2018, which would ordinarily be concerning for a film with $250M in production/marketing costs, but Meg 2 overperformed internationally even more strongly than […]

>The calendar turns to the second quarter of the year, and the 14th weekend of the year should be another strong one: about $141 million for the top 12 films up 37% from last year’s comparable weekend and up 31% from the four-year average for this weekend.  Three films have a good shot at earning […]

  OPENINGS:  The major studios abandoned this normally prime summer-season weekend, and a flood of indies rushed in to grab the available theaters.  None were able to capitalize to a particularly notable extent, with the anime HAIKYUU: THE DUMPSTER BATTLE (Crunchyroll/Sony) faring best at $3.5M.  The genre is typically very frontloaded, so Haikyuu may not […]