OPENINGS:  After Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, and now THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners), writer/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will be able to do just about anything they want:  all 3 of their projects have not only been smash hits, but they’ve greatly overperformed expectations, spawning 3 new franchises in […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #6 of 2014 now looks like $139 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a better outlook than yesterday but still 16% behind the usual pace for this weekend.  The Lego Movie is a huge hit, but the rest of the box office is providing little support. Opening […]

  Two of the weekend’s openings drew upon their core audiences for strong Saturday results.  Weekend matinees are prime time for family movies, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) had a huge $31.4M second day in theaters, almost doubling its Friday result and making a $70M weekend likely.  That will make […]

  Note:  all weekend-to-weekend comparisons to Jan 31-Feb 2 will look better than usual because of last week’s Super Bowl Sunday, which sharply depressed box office for the day. OPENINGS:  THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) is likely to outgross its $60M production budget by Sunday after a $17.1M Friday, and while that won’t cover the usual […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #6 of 2014 looks like $132 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well ahead of last year’s disaster of a weekend but still 20% behind the usual pace for this weekend.  The Lego Movie is a huge hit, but the rest of the box office is providing little support. […]

  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 […]

Weekend #6 of 2014 is looking like a tepid $114 million for the top 12 films, a 30% increase over last year’s disaster for the comparable weekend (Identity Thief and Side Effects bowed this time last year).  But $114 is over 30% below the average for this weekend over the last four years.  For example, […]

As we continue to tally the films released wide in 2013, Disney has pulled ahead of Warner Brothers in worldwide box office for the 2013 slate (now an $18 million margin out of over $9 billion between the two rival studios).  Disney continues to benefit mightily from Frozen, both in North America and overseas.  For a complete […]