It’s beginning to look like a long, dark summer for Hollywood, which is adding two more box office disappointments to a growing list over this Memorial Day weekend.  PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES (Disney) had a $23M Friday (including $5.3M from Thursday night) according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, and […]

  OPENINGS:  This was supposed to be the kick-off weekend for the holiday movie season, but Dune 2 decamped for 2024 and the studios didn’t step in to replace it, so the biggest arrival of the week was the expansion of PRISCILLA (A24) from 4 theaters to 1359 with $5.1M.  That’s not a bad number […]

The big gainers overseas this week were The Expendables 2 (up $36 million to $102 million), The Dark Knight Rises (up another $29 million to $603 million overseas to date), Brave (up $17 million) and Step Up Revolution (up $11 million).  Not reporting yet are Bourne Legacy and Ice Age: Continental Drift. The Words will not be a player overseas, but the other opener this weekend, The Cold […]

Weekend #8 of 2016 is looking like $133 million for the top 12 films this weekend, above the norms for this normally sleepy weekend (see comparisons below). NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND February 19-21, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Risen Sony PG13 n/a 9.5 23 10 […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #51 of 2013 now looks like $137 million for the top 12 films from Friday-Sunday, up substantially from the same weekend last year (see comparisons to previous years at the bottom).   Opening at 3,507 theaters Wednesday, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues from Paramount grossed $13.2 million before Friday ($8.1 Wednesday […]

The weekend before Christmas offers four wide releases and another fairly-wide release.  What a collection of underperformers.  The weekend should total a very uninspired $112 million for the top 12 films.  The 51st weekend of the year averages $172 million, and the last time this weekend started on December 21 (2007), the top 12 films […]

>The weekend studio estimates (based on Friday and Saturday actuals and projections for Sunday) are coming in about the same as the weekend numbers posted yesterday (based on Friday actuals only).  The box office volume for the top 12 films is now looking like $110 million for the weekend, down 6% from last year’s weekend […]

  2014 has its first smash hit, as preliminary numbers at Deadline give THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) a huge $18M Friday.  Since Saturday matinees should only boost the family-oriented animated comedy-adventure, that should bring it over $60M for the weekend, and with the Presidents Day holiday dead ahead and no other family movie on the […]