Seasonal Note:  Good Friday is traditionally a strong day for moviegoing, which explains the generally solid Friday-to-Friday holds below.  Easter Sunday, though, is less of a movie day, potentially bringing down weekend multiples. OPENINGS:  HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) is impressively overperforming, its $7.9M Friday added to $7M from Wednesday and Thursday for a […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #16 of 2014 looks like $122 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, not as high as forecast but still up 9% from the typical total for this weekend.   Opening at 2,417 theaters Wednesday (with $7.0 million across Wednesday and Thursday), Heaven Is for Real from Sony grossed $7.8 million Friday, putting […]

  In an appropriately biblical development for this Easter weekend, it appears from preliminary numbers at Deadline that David will defeat Goliath, and the $12M-budgeted HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) will handily outgross the $100M+ TRANSCENDENCE (Warners).  On Friday, Heaven pulled in a reported $8M (on top of $7M from Wednesday and Thursday), and although […]

  The hunger for religious-themed movies hasn’t been dissipated at all by the recent Son of God, God’s Not Dead and Noah, as HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) had a very healthy $3.7M start on Wednesday at 2417 theatres despite indifferent reviews (50% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), edging out CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney) […]

Weekend #16 of 2014 is looking like a very solid $130 million for the top 12 films, 15% above the typical volume for this weekend the past few years ($112 million).  Although not as strong as the previous few weekends, this is the third up weekend in a row.  None of the new films this weekend […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Strong overseas grosses for Captain America: The Winter Soldier has pushed Disney slightly ahead of Warner Brothers for worldwide box office to date (with each studio over $800 million so far this year).  Rio 2 has pushed Fox to over $700 million worldwide in 2014.  Sony, Universal and Paramount are next with about $500 million […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #15 of 2014 looks like $131 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a significant downgrade from yesterday’s estimate but still 17% above the four-year average for this weekend ($112 million).  Rio 2 and Captain America 2 are supporting the box office, while two smaller films in the […]

  RIO 2 (20th/Blue Sky) appears to be losing altitude, according to preliminary box office numbers at Deadline.  The sequel reportedly climbed 30-34% on its second day of release, from $11.9M on Friday to $16M or less.  That would be a big drop from the 69% bump the first Rio had on its initial Saturday […]