Here is the Weekend Studio Estimates summary (posted much later than usual but for the record). Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #35 of 2013 now looks like $93 million for the top 12 films, down a bit from yesterday’s $95 million estimate and up a still significant 13% from the average Friday-Sunday portion […]

  UPDATE:  More refined Wednesday numbers are in via The Hollywood Reporter, and the major difference from the numbers below was for SILVER LININGS NOTEBOOK, which made $656K rather than $550K. still off the pace of last year’s The Descendants, which had a very similar release pattern.  Also, RED DAWN made $4.2M rather than $4.5M, […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now +7% above last year and now +17% above the average for this point the past four years ($1.698 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have […]

  OPENINGS:  Even in healthy times, Super Bowl weekend isn’t a fertile time for movie openings, the exceptions being counterprogramming like 2008’s Hannah Montana concert movie.  In that vein, this weekend featured the limited release of the animated EARWIG AND THE WITCH (GKids) at 430 theatres, for a $100K total that translated into a $230 […]

> THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) continues to overperform.  Based on preliminary Saturday numbers at Deadline, it’s headed for a $21.7M weekend and a total so far of $335.7M, a spectacular 35% decline for a blockbuster in its 4th weekend (and even better than it sounds, because last weekend included the Good Friday holiday).  If it […]

  NOTE:  UPDATED THROUGHOUT WITH STUDIO ESTIMATES Black Friday was, as always, a very bright day for movies.  The holiday weekend continues to belong to THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART I (Lionsgate), which soared 118% from Thursday to a terrific $24.1M.  Even though Mockingjay continues to lag behind the previous Hunger Games installments, that’s a […]

The weekend looks a little softer than it did yesterday ($131 million for the top 12 films rather than $142 million).  The Hobbit is looking like an $85 million opening weekend instead of almost $99 million.   Still a record December opening weekend (beating I Am Legend’s $77.2 million opening weekend December 14-16, 2007) but not at […]

  OPENINGS:  TOY STORY 4 (Pixar/Disney) opened with $118M in the US, and that’s obviously a huge amount of money and in a different dimension from the flops that Hollywood has weathered over the past several weeks.  Nevertheless, it’s around 25% below general expectations, and considerably less than the June openings for The Incredibles 2 […]