Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #27 of 2013 looks like a terrific $223 million for the top 12 films, up sharply from the comparable weekend in recent years. Not even The Lone Ranger could derail a hot summer box office, which is up 30% or more in three of the last four weekends. Opening at […]

The complete Friday Box Office report will be posted at its usual time Saturday morning, but in the meantime we have one big over-performer in Despicable Me 2, one opener slightly above forecast (Kevin Hart) and one flat-out, embarrassing bomb (Lone Ranger), doing even worse than our bearish expectations. With $34.3 million Wednesday and $24.5 million […]

  NOTE:  This Post Has Been Updated With Actual Studio Estimates Typically Independence Day itself is a relatively quiet day for moviegoing, because audiences have other things to do, and DESPICABLE ME 2 (Universal) fell 29% from Wednesday to a still-big $24.5M.  That was the 7th-highest Thursday box office ever (and the 2d-highest for movies […]

  Note:  Updated With Official Wednesday Studio Estimates It’s going to be a sensational holiday for DESPICABLE ME 2 (Universal).  he sequel had the third-best opening day for any animated movie ever with $34.3M on Wednesday.  (It’s behind only Toy Story 3‘s $41.2M and Shrek the Third‘s $38.4M.)  With the 4-5x multiple of a 5-day […]

The 27th weekend of the year is looking like an excellent $218 million for the top 12 films, up 20-35% from the comparable weekend the last few years. Opening at around 3,900 theaters Wednesday (well above the top 10% theater count for opening weekend wide releases of 3,690 theaters), Despicable Me 2 from Universal should average $20,000 per theater for the three-day weekend […]

  OPENINGS:  The $40M weekend estimate for THE HEAT (20th) makes more sense than it did last night, now that the movie’s Saturday is being reported as a 6% increase rather than a 5% drop.  (But always be suspicious of round-number estimates anyway.)  The Heat is going to be profitable, thanks to its $45M production budget, […]

Updated international box office chart:

STUDIO SCORECARD. No change in the year-to-date studio rankings this week, the midpoint of the year. 20th Century Fox was up $133 million from last week mainly thanks to the domestic release of The Heat. Warner Brothers had a similar $129 million weekly gain, mostly because of international gains by Man of Steel.  Disney and Paramount were […]