OPENINGS:  There weren’t a lot of significant changes from Friday night’s picture of the weekend box office.  The only wide opening, ESCAPE ROOM (Columbia/Sony), inevitably fell 13% on Saturday, considering its genre and its unusually early Thursday afternoon start.  Nevertheless, the $18M studio weekend estimate should stand up, and that’s a solid number for […]

>The past week (seven days ending Sunday) came in up 25% versus last year’s comparable week.  Year-to-date box office is now down 7% versus last year (an improvement of two percentage points from last week).    The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between May 30 and June 5 […]

>Another win for Katniss Everdeen. THE HUNGER GAMES: In just its 3rd weekend of release, and with plenty left in the tank, THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) hit $302.8M, and has already outgrossed every picture in the Twilight series. (Only 5 movies have gotten to $300M faster.) By this time next week, it will also have […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Big Hero 6 has pushed Disney into a solid second place, giving it some distance from #3 Warner Brothers.  Interstellar has allowed Paramount to pull into 4th place, passing Sony and drawing fairly close to Warner Brothers (with Paramount boasting a much higher hit-to-miss ration than Warner Brothers has).   Scroll down for domestic and […]

  OPENINGS:  TOMB RAIDER (MGM/Warners) was a reboot that no one asked for, and although franchise movies aren’t star vehicles, the casting of Alicia Vikander in the lead didn’t excite anyone either.  Its $23.5M US weekend won’t get it very far in recouping $200M+ in production/marketing costs.  Things are better overseas, where Tomb Raider earned […]

> The Hogwarts Express has started its journey:  last night’s midnight showings of HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (PART 2) blew past the previous midnight record of $30M (Twilight:  Eclipse) and grossed an incredible $43.5M from those screenings alone.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, this included sold-out houses for every single 3D midnight performance […]

  OPENINGS:  There have been a lot of busted franchises this summer, but ANNABELLE: CREATION (New Line/Warners) held strong, with a $35M opening weekend that was down just 5% from the first Annabelle.  The new entry is considerably more frontloaded than the first, down 22% on Saturday compared to 10%, which may mean a US […]

  ROGUE ONE (Lucasfilm/Disney) is performing as expected, massive but short of last year’s core Star Wars installment The Force Awakens.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Friday’s take was $72M (including $29M from Thursday night), 40% below Force Awakens yet still one of the Top 10 opening days of all time.  In a sign […]