>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Contagion is #1 and is headed for a final of about $74 million.  The other openers were either quiet or stillborn.  The Help, now #2, nonetheless has been upgraded to a domestic final estimate of $174 million.  The weekend overall is now looking like it […]

  OPENINGS:  LEAP (Weinstein) was the weekend’s tallest dwarf, claiming to have cleared $5M for the weekend, but that number will require an extremely strong Sunday hold.  Even if it’s sustained in tomorrow’s finals, it’s hardly anything to be enthused about–except in comparison to the weekend’s other losers. BIRTH OF THE DRAGON (WWE/Blumhouse/BH Tilt/Universal) couldn’t […]

  OPENINGS:  With an assortment of excuses (the World Series!  a video game release!  Halloween!  birthday parties?!?), VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (Marvel/Columbia/Sony) tottered to $51M in the US, down 43% from 2021’s Let There Be Carnage.  At this point it seems to be heading for $125M domestically, down from $213.6M.  Things are much stronger overseas, […]

> REAL STEEL had a nice Saturday bump of 27%, but that’s far lower than the 40% it was initially claiming (and only 4% higher than the one for Ides of March, which is decidedly not a family matinee movie).  The picture could benefit, though, from some additional matinee business on Columbus Day tomorrow.  Also […]

> Let’s take a look at just how remarkably THE HELP is performing so far.   The most obvious points of comparison are the literary-sourced, female-skewing hits of the last 2 Augusts:  Julie & Julia in 2009, and last year’s Eat Pray Love.  Julia had a $20M opening that led to a $94M domestic gross; Eat […]

  Movie ticket sales were down significantly on December 31, as audiences found other things to do with their New Year’s Eves, but the results still gave Les Miserables a symbolic turnaround, putting it back in 2d place after a weekend behind Django Unchained.  Business should zoom today for the holiday finale, before settling into mundane […]

The 2014 holiday box office has pulled slightly ahead 2013 and remains somewhat above the average for the last decade or so. The top 10 films on Saturday January 3, 2015 totaled a very good $46.8 million, somewhat above the average $42.5 million for the days since 2002 when this date landed on a weekend. […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -24% below last year’s comparable span and now -17% below the average for this point the past four years ($1.733 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $4.0 […]