ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (Columbia/Sony), the summer’s great adult-oriented, non-franchise, auteur/movie star hope, had a solid start per preliminary numbers at Deadline with a $16.7M opening day (including $5.8M from Thursday night).  That’s the biggest opening of Quentin Tarantino’s career, higher than the $14.4M for Inglourious Basterds and the $15M for Django […]

> UPDATE:  More detailed numbers are proving even better for MI4, which reportedly made $6.6M on Wednesday.  The action sequel is close to a $2K average at 3400 theatres, and looks like the hit of the season with $25M already in the bank. Things are less promising for THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, which […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now down -1% from last year and now +3% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.443 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed […]

> John Carter traveled to Mars; the movie with his name also looks beyond the US for some help. OPENINGS:  JOHN CARTER (Disney) may or may not have grossed over $30M this weekend–we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.  (Disney is claiming a not-unreasonable 31% Sunday drop, but it would take only a small slip to […]

  OPENINGS:  NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems/Sony) surged ahead of expectations with a $8.8M Friday.  The level of its frontloadedness, however, isn’t yet clear.  2009’s Obsessed, an April 2009 Screen Gems thriller that also starred Idris Elba (with Beyonce instead of Tarji P. Henson), had an $11.2M Friday, and reached $28.6M for its weekend (and […]

  The revamped franchise launch of THE BOURNE LEGACY (Universal) is off to a solid start, according to preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline.  Legacy is claiming a $15M Friday, which while 40% below the opening day for Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, is about as expected, considering the absence of Matt Damon this time around.  However, […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. The studio rankings for worldwide box office remain the same this week, with Sony, Universal and 20th Century Fox having the most productive weeks.  Sony benefited from the domestic and especially overseas revenue from The Smurfs 2, while Universal was helped by the release of 2 Guns and the continued overseas grosses for Despicable Me 2.  Even […]

>Despite a downgraded estimated domestic total, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 expanded its international gross to date to come very close to the billion dollar mark.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon is starting to top out in its overseas gross — the worldwide gross will probably end up around $950 million.  Captain […]