Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #44 of 2013 looks like $116 million for the top 12 films, down 3% from the same weekend’s average in recent years. Opening at 3,407 theaters Friday, Ender’s Game from Lionsgate/Summit grossed $9.9 million Friday and is on track for a $28.0 million opening weekend (very close to the $28.5 million ShowbuzzDaily forecast). The […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #21 of 2013 looks like an outstanding $256 million for the top 12 films, 50-75% above the comparable weekend the past few years.  A fairly deep bench of films is currently playing, although don’t count on Hangover III to contribute much in the coming weeks. Opening at 3,658 theaters Friday, Fast […]

Back to barren summer theaters.  The 24th weekend of 2012 is looking like a very weak $122 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 17% from this weekend last year and down 21% from a more normal third weekend in June.  Both Rock of Ages and That’s My Boy proved to be incredibly weak. […]

> In a battle of two comedies this weekend, Arthur (Warner Bros) and Your Highness (Universal) should split the comedy audience, with Arthur having a slight edge (despite horrific reviews on rottentomatoes — I guess most critics share my disbelief that Russell Brand is opening a movie).  Read Mitch Salem’s review of Arthur to see what he thinks. […]

  As usual, Thanksgiving Day itself was down for many films.  However, that didn’t keep the holiday’s pair of blockbusters from rewriting the record books. THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) set a new Thanksgiving Day record with $14.9M, tearing past the $13.1M set by Toy Story 2.  With the meat of the holiday weekend […]

  The Disney machine is hitting an atypical pothole with DUMBO (Disney), which according to preliminary numbers at Deadline had a $14.8M Friday ($2.6M of that from Thursday night).  That’s very much on the low end of the studio’s live-action remakes of its own animated classics, behind the opening days for Beauty & The Beast […]

  The latest underperforming franchise entry is TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS (Nickelodeon/Movie Media Group/Alibaba/Paramount).  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $11.6M, down 55% from the $25.6M start for the rebooted TMNT 2 years ago.  That suggests a weekend that may not hit $30M, and a US total under $100M.  […]

> With the superpowers wielded only by Hollywood studio estimators, CAPTAIN AMERICA:  THE FIRST AVENGER has leaped ahead of Thor to claim the biggest superhero opening of the year.  But Captain America and HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (PART 2) are the only pictures in the Top 10 predicting a Sunday drop of less […]