WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Warner Brothers has pulled ahead thanks to the opening of 300: Rise of an Empire and recent overseas grosses from The LEGO Movie, as it really kicks into gear outside North America. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014.   YEAR TO DATE […]

  OPENINGS:  In order for STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS (Paramount) to hit its $70.6M weekend studio estimate (and $84.1M over 4+ days), it will need to have the best Sunday hold in the top 10 by a substantial margin.  Paramount has it slipping only 24%, when the next-lowest drop is 30% (and that’s also for […]

>The Hunger Games has moved up to $229 million overseas (up from $216 million last week).  The film is probably headed for a worldwide total of $660 million, including our newly revised forecast of $399 million domestic.  Click “read more” to see the updated weekly worldwide table.      Arriving in North America Friday, The […]

  OPENINGS:  None of the studio releasing new films this weekend had much to be happy about.  BLAIR WITCH (Lionsgate) was the top of the newcomers in the US, but with a $9.7M start, it’s low-end even by the standards of cheap horror movies, and while its $5M production budget isn’t a problem, its $40-50M […]

The 2015 holiday box office continues its blistering pace. For the 12 days December 16-27, top 10 films in North America have totaled $783 million, +78% ahead of the same period last year, +92% above the average since 2002, and now +50% ahead of the record for this period (2009, the year of Avatar).  This is when Avatar really kicked […]

  If preliminary weekend numbers at Deadline hold, THE WORLD’S END (Focus/Universal) will be a bit more frontloaded than it would have liked, slipping 10% from Friday to Saturday for $3.1M on its second day, and a bit behind THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (Screen Gems/Sony) for the title of weekend’s biggest opening, with Mortal […]

  No one expected 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (Warners/Legendary) to equal the giant start of its predecessor, after 7 years and with most of the cast gone–and it won’t.  But based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the spin-off is launching well, with a $17M Friday (which includes $3.3M from Thursday night) that should mean […]

  OPENINGS:  Saturday wasn’t pretty for ABOUT LAST NIGHT (Screen Gems/Sony), which tumbled 38% on the day after Valentine’s Day to $8.1M, and is now projecting $27M for the 3-day weekend ($30M or so with the holiday Monday).  That’s still a strong opening for a moderately-budgeted movie, and while About won’t get anywhere near Ride […]