WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Despite having the only movie to cross the $300 million worldwide line (The Lego Movie), Warner Brothers lags behind Sony which has no mega-hit but three of its four films in 2014 are at $100 million or more worldwide.  But it’s early in the race with Disney yet to release a film in […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Warner Brothers remains head and shoulders above the other studios, while Sony and Universal form a second tier with about $500 million worldwide each for 2014 to date.  Lionsgate/Summit and Disney now join Fox and Paramount in the third tier (between $200 million and $300 million worldwide each). Scroll […]

  OPENINGS:  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony) won’t arrive in the US for almost 2 weeks, and so far it’s in only 14 international markets–and it was still the biggest story of the weekend, pulling in $47M in those territories, which included portions of Europe as well as Australia and Mexico.  Amazing 2 is following […]

  GODZILLA (Warners/Legendary) is more or less the definition of a movie that should have a great first night, and indeed it did on Thursday, pulling in $9.3M in shows that started at 7PM.  That’s more than the $8.7M for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and not far off the pace of Captain America: The Winter […]

  Here’s a scary factoid for the studios.  In 2013, 5 movies opened in May/June that reached over $200M in the US alone, and none of those movies had a total lower than $228.8M.  This year, as we head to mid-June, it doesn’t look like any of the summer openings will get that high.  (The […]

  The long holiday movie weekend began without much interest from audiences. OPENINGS:  TAMMY (Warners) got underway with a so-so $6.2M, which includes $1.3M from Tuesday night shows.  That suggests $32-35M for the 5-day weekend, around $20M of it during the Friday-Sunday period.  Considering that both reviews and exit poll responses have been dismal, a […]

  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) had a sensational $11.2M start in Thursday night shows starting at 7PM.  That’s the biggest Thursday night result of the year, edging out Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s $10.2M (although that had a slight handicap with its 8PM start time) and beating all of the summer’s other blockbusters.  It’s […]

  OPENINGS:  IF I STAY (Warners/MGM) was the best of a weak trio, opening with $16.4M and with an 18% drop on Saturday that indicated moderate front-loading.  It should reach a fair $40-50M US total, which could get it to breakeven if not profit. WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL (Affirm/TriStar/Sony), with a $9M weekend, was […]