Taken 2 enters the worldwide chart at #10 among recent movies, with a projected $138 domestic total when all is said and done and an overseas to date total of $67 million already.  An eventual overseas total of $200 million is possible, putting the worldwide target at $338 million.  This compares to a worldwide total […]

  OPENINGS:  While not an outright flop like The Lone Ranger, Pacific Rim, RIPD, et. al (particularly since it cost less to produce than any of those), THE WOLVERINE (20th) is underperforming in a big way.  Its estimated $21M Thursday night/Friday is the lowest start for any X-Men branded movie since the original 13 years […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  A great week for Fox, which vaults into second place and just over $900 million worldwide box office year to date.  The very strong Fox week was paced by the domestic rollout of The Other Woman and continued international strength from Rio 2.  Disney remains in the top spot with just under $1 billion worldwide […]

  A weak slate of newcomers is almost always good news for the holdovers in the market, and that will be the case this holiday weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (Warners Animation) declined a mild 45% from last week’s opening day to $8M, and should take in at least […]

The 37th weekend of the year is looking like $81 million for the top 12 films, very close to the multi-year average for this weekend. Opening at around 2,900 theaters Friday (just above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Insidious Chapter 2 from FilmDistrict and director James Wan should average $11,300 per theater for […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #29 of 2013 looks like a decent $178 million for the top 12 films, about even with the average for this weekend over the past several years (but down significantly from last year’s same weekend which was dominated by the opening of The Dark Knight Rises).   Opening at 2,903 […]

  THE DARK TOWER (MRC/Columbia/Sony) will probably win the weekend, but in unimpressive fashion.  It had a $7.7M opening day (including $1.8M from Thursday night), putting it on track for a $19M weekend.  The production budget was reportedly kept reasonable in the $60Ms, but Sony gave it an A-level marketing campaign, which will put total […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2015 looks like $143 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above the norm for the fourth weekend of the year, which usually struggles to get above $100 million.  (See complete weekend track below.)  All credit goes to American Sniper, which is truly extraordinary.  As for the […]