OPENINGS:  PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount), with its $18.2M weekend, made less at 2867 theatres than the first Paranormal made at 760, a little more than 4 years ago.  It was also well below the $29M weekend for the last Paranormal installment in 2012 (which had been the franchise low).  In other words, […]

Weekend #10 of 2014 is looking like $127 million for the top 12 films, right in line with the same weekend the last few years.  Opening at around 3,400 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), 300: Rise of an Empire from Warner Brothers should average a solid $10,800 per theater […]

  This weekend was fine… but just wait till next week. OPENINGS:  Polarizing, controversial, dark, revisionist, divisive–and a hit.  NOAH (Paramount/Regency) took in $44M in the US this weekend after a 16% Saturday bump.  That already makes it Darren Aronofsky’s 2d biggest hit after Black Swan.  Of course, it’s also by far his most expensive film, […]

  We’re just days away from the launch of the summer movie season, the most important part of the year for all of the major studios.  Literally billions of dollars will be on the line over the next several months, with almost every weekend bringing a high-stakes bet to the table from one or more […]

  X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (20th) began with a bang last night, earning $8.1M from Thursday night shows.  Although that’s less than Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($10.2M), Godzilla ($9.3M), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($8.7M), Fox decided to forego some of its Thursday night potential (presumably to provide extra oomph on Friday) by […]

  OPENINGS:  22 JUMP STREET (Sony/Columbia) went even higher on Friday than early estimates had it, reaching $25M.  Even if it’s front-loaded as a young-skewing sequel, a $60M weekend is all but guaranteed, which would be 65% higher than the $36.3M opening weekend for 21 Jump Street, and if strong word of mouth kicks in, […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #28 of 2014 looks like $134 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 30% below the norm for this weekend and very close to our forecast ($135 million). Opening at 3,967 theaters, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes from 20th Century Fox grossed $27.7 million through Friday and is on […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #32 of 2014 looks like a very good $173 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above our forecast ($152 million) and 26% above the norm for this weekend ($138 million). Opening at 3,845 theaters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Paramount grossed $25.6 million through Friday and is on track for […]