Note:  Updated With Official Wednesday Studio Estimates It’s going to be a sensational holiday for DESPICABLE ME 2 (Universal).  he sequel had the third-best opening day for any animated movie ever with $34.3M on Wednesday.  (It’s behind only Toy Story 3‘s $41.2M and Shrek the Third‘s $38.4M.)  With the 4-5x multiple of a 5-day […]

> X-Men: First Class added to the Worldwide gross list in the top 10, while Pirates 4 continues to dominate. X-Men: First Class enters the 2011 Worldwide gross list at #8, while Hangover Part II is closing in on Thor and should take fourth place as early as next week.  Kung Fu Panda 2 jumped […]

  OPENINGS:  $17.1M for THE CALL (TriStar/Sony) is more than the movie cost to produce (although it won’t pay for the marketing), and sets the Halle Berry vehicle up to be a modest hit.  However, there’s no spinning the $10.3M for THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (Warners), which will lose much more than its $35M production budget […]

  OPENINGS:  It was a sad lot of newcomers this holiday weekend.  TAMMY (Warners) is claiming a $21.2M weekend ($32.9M including Wed-Thurs), which will leave it struggling to get past $70M in the US.  (It also brought in $2.5M from a very small initial overseas release.)  DELIVER US FROM EVIL (Screen Gems/Sony) had a relatively […]

  It was a surprisingly lopsided win on Friday for NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems/Sony), although things may tighten up a bit over the course of the weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, No Good Deed earned $8.5M on Friday, which should get it to at least $21M for the weekend, and possibly more.  […]

The box office is starting to stabilize after a rough first quarter of the year.  This weekend’s top 12 films should total about $120 million, within 3% of the same weekend in recent years and the second weekend in a row to buck the strong downward trend most of the winter. Opening at a slightly […]

  CRAZY RICH ASIANS (SK Global/Warners) has become a genuine phenomenon, down per preliminary numbers at Deadline just 17% from last Friday to $5.8M.  Sunday will be stronger than usual due to the 4-day weekend, so that should mean $23M by Sunday and $28M with Monday, putting Crazy on a track that now seems capable […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount) is likely to win Friday but lose the weekend.  Its $8.5M start positions it not only to come in below the wide releases of all the previous installments of the Paranormal franchise (which opened in October), but also below the recent January […]