Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 now looks like $161 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 18% above the norm for this weekend now matching the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million late Thursday/Friday and $25.6 million Saturday, now putting the film on track […]

  Despite a $8.7M start on Thursday night that was no better than the year’s other blockbusters, and bulletins throughout the day that business was slightly softer than expected, reports at Deadline and elsewhere are now claiming that TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount) surged to $40M on Friday, which would be the biggest day of any […]

Weekend #30 of 2014 is looking like $128 million for the top 12 films this weekend, -13% below the norm for this weekend.  Not a disaster like the previous three weekends (-27% to -34%), but the sixth down weekend in a row.  Opening at 3,172 theaters Friday (somewhat above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #38 of 2014 now looks like $93 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 8% above the norm for this weekend ($86 million) and up a bit from yesterday’s estimate ($91 million). Opening at 3,604 theaters, The Maze Runner from 20th Century Fox grossed $11.3 million Friday and […]

[UPDATE: The predictions for the films opening this weekend have been revised, reflecting corrections to some key computations.] Weekend #43 of 2014 is looking like $100 million $109 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 23% from the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 2,700 theaters Friday (just below the 2,886 average theater […]

  OPENINGS:  Congratulations and condolences to THE HUNGER GAMES:  MOCKINGJAY PART 1 (Lionsgate), which had the biggest day of any movie this year–yet at $55M (slightly higher than Friday afternoon estimates had projected) was a surprising disappointment.  That number was well behind the $67.3M for the first Hunger Games and the $71M for Catching Fire, a […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  A huge weekend for Warner Brothers, pushes the studio back into a secure second place among the Hollywood studios. 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 still running -6% behind last […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #3 of 2015 looks like $172 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, way up from the norm for this weekend and setting a new record for the third weekend in January, breaking last year’s brief record (see track below for the weekend).  The box office is on fire, driven […]