Audiences decide they want to see movies again. OPENINGS:  With the market starved for family entertainment (the last major animated opening was Ice Age 4 back in July), HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (Sony) and its $43M smashed the September opening record and the Sony Animations record, and comes in just behind Shark Tale as the biggest animated […]

> Through Memorial Day, the Summer Movie Draft is starting to tighten up.  Team Metcalf leads $318 million to $298 million for Team Salem.  But keep in mind that Salem has two movies opening (the well-reviewed X-Men: First Class and the eagerly anticipated Super 8) before Metcalf’s next movie (Mr Popper’s Penguins).  The race  should […]

Weekend #4 of 2015 is looking like $134 million for the top 12 films this weekend, way up from both the norm for this weekend and the same weekend last year.  After missing the American Sniper opening weekend number by a mile in last week’s forecast, forgive us if we are a little gun shy.  But […]

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 […]

  Let’s start with something simple:  anyone who claims to have reliable knowledge about the profitability of a specific film, without having detailed access to its production budgets, financing documents and key talent agreements (virtually all confidential), misleads themselves and their readers. The financing and accounting of films is probably more complicated now than it’s […]

>With over $3 billion of summer box office through Wednesday, only $53 million separates Teams Metcalf and Salem.  Metcalf’s slate of movies leads with $1.59 billion versus $1.54 billion for Salem’s.  Only one film (30 Minutes or Less) is left to open, and Salem should enjoy a strong second weekend for Rise of the Planet […]

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between September 10 and September 16 grossed a piss-poor $93 million, down 19% from the four-year average for the week and down 21% from the same week last year.  We have to go back to the same week in 2004 to find […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. Another very good week for Universal with the moderate domestic success of The Purge and the continued strong overseas performance of Fast & Furious 6.  The perennial also-ran studio (Universal) is now about $300 million away from #1 Disney for 2013 to date.  Universal is actually #1 for the year to date domestically but […]