The movie business rebounded from Halloween on Saturday, with substantial gains for just about everything.  Somewhat surprisingly, the second weekend of OUIJA (Blumhouse/Universal) is challenging the new release NIGHTCRAWLER (Open Road) for the diminished weekend’s honors.  Ouija overperformed early estimates on Friday, pulling ahead with $3.5M to Nightcrawler‘s $3.2M.  According to preliminary numbers at […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is now running -6% behind last year (worse than the -5% pace the last several weeks) and -3% below the average for this point the […]

The top 10 films December 26, 2014 totaled $63.3 million,right at the average $63.1 million for the days since 2002 when December 26 landed on a Friday-Sunday.  The last time December 26 fell on a Friday (2008), the day’s top 10 films added up to a similar $63.5 million.  The 11 days December 16-26 total […]

  AMERICAN SNIPER (Village Roadshow/Warners):  Depending on how one characterizes Titanic, American Sniper is on track to become the #3 or #4 “serious drama” of all time, behind that film, The Passion of the Christ ($370.8M) and Forrest Gump ($330.3M).  Even if this weekend’s studio estimate of $64.4M turns out to have been tinkered with […]

Weekend #11 of 2015 is looking like $126 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up significantly from comparable weekends the past few years and putting 2015 back on track after two down weekends in a row. Opening at around 3,600 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the […]

  FURIOUS 7 (Universal) will handily take its third consecutive weekend title after what preliminary numbers at Deadline say was an $8M Friday.  That’s down about 58% from last Friday (which was 54% down from the Friday before), and puts the blockbuster in line for a $25M weekend, which would give it $290M in the […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #23 of 2015 looks like $132 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down significantly from the norm for this weekend as the lame summer continues.   Opening at 3,711 theaters Friday, Spy from Fox is on track for a $32.0 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our $39.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). […]

  OPENINGS:  MINIONS (Illumination/Universal) had a surprisingly bumpy 16% drop on Saturday, but it will handily become the #2 animated opening of all time, topping Toy Story 3‘s $110.3M, even if the studio’s $115.2M forecast turns out to rely on a stronger Sunday rebound than final numbers confirm.  (Still #1: 2007’s  Shrek The Third at […]