OPENINGS:  There were no truly wide openings this weekend, but the pandemic horror movie IN THE EARTH (Neon) arrived at the low end of “wide” in 547 theatres and started quietly at $500K. Next weekend’s likely #1 US opening MORTAL KOMBAT (Warners) has reached $19.2M overseas after a $5.7M weekend in 28 territories. HOLDOVERS:  […]

  OPENINGS:  CREED III (UA/MGM/Amazon) launched with an impressive $58.7M, higher than the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend starts for the previous entries in the series ($42.1M/$56M), and also higher than any of the Rocky movies (not adjusted for inflation).  As is typical for this franchise, overseas was somewhat softer, with $41.8M from 75 markets.  Nevertheless, the […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #50 of 2014 looks like $76 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down a horrible 40% from the norm for this weekend ($127 million) and down 46% from the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,503 theaters, Exodus: Gods and Kings from 20th Century Fox grossed $8.6 million Friday and is […]

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 […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is now +7% above last year and still +12% above the average for this point the […]

  OPENINGS:  NO HARD FEELINGS (Columbia/Sony) slightly exceeded tracking expectations with $15.1M, but those expectations were themselves quite low.  With production and worldwide marketing costs in the neighborhood of $100M, the film will need to hold strongly for the next several weeks to reach any profit, and while it has the hard-R comedy field to […]

The 45th weekend of the year is looking like $174 million for the top 12 films, which would be a record for the second weekend of November. Opening at over 3,800 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Thor: The Dark World from Disney and Marvel should […]

  OPENINGS:  Even among the mostly-sad legacy of Labor Day Weekend openings, OPERATION FINALE (MGM) was notably weak at $6M ($7.7M since its Wednesday launch), and that number incorporates a studio-estimated Sunday bump that would be the highest in the Top 10.  The weekend number, which may get to $7.5M with Monday added, is considerably […]