Given the overwhelming fanboy appeal of PACIFIC RIM (Warners/Legendary), it’s not exactly a shock that the movie started strong with shows that started at 7PM Thursday night, earning $3.6M.  It’s probably in line for a solid Friday as well–the question will be what happens when the usually frontloaded genre crowd is done and the […]

  OPENINGS:   Two smart studio decisions bailed out what could have been a scary opening weekend for THE WOLVERINE (20th).  Fox kept the budget relatively low for its expensive genre, just $250M or so including worldwide marketing, and it boosted international appeal with an Asian setting.  Both paid off, as the movie had the robust […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #34 of 2013 looks like an okay $91 million for the top 12 films, even with the average for the same weekend the last few years but up from last year’s comparable weekend. Opening at 1,548 theaters Friday, The World’s End from Focus/Universal grossed $3.5 million Friday and is on track for […]

  OPENINGS:  PRISONERS (Warners) came in at $7M on Friday, a bit less than the initial $7.5M estimate.  That could indicate cooling word-of-mouth as the evening went on, or just overenthusiastic estimators.  The number is still above Argo‘s $5.9M start but it’s below the $8.3M for The Town, two other adult thrillers Warners released in […]

  OPENINGS:  When Paramount pushed the next Paranormal Activity to 2014, it seemed to give CARRIE (Screen Gems/Sony/MGM) an open field to own the Halloween movie season.  But audiences weren’t interested, and Carrie managed only a $6.6M opening day on the way to a likely $15M weekend, a major disappointment considering the auspices (the classic […]

  OPENINGS:  THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (Universal) took advantage of being the only new movie in the market and nosed ahead of Thor on Friday, $10.7M to $10.5M.  That lead won’t hold for the rest of the weekend, but it’s still a great result for Best Man, which should end up with a weekend total […]

  OPENINGS:  With a dreadful $5.3M weekend, OUT OF THE FURNACE (Relativity) emerged burnt to a crisp.  The only useful thing it could do at this point is boost Christian Bale’s chance for an Oscar nomination–not for Furnace, but for American Hustle, where he’s so visually and tempermentally different than he is in Furnace that it […]

Updated worldwide box office chart for 2013 North American films.  The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (Warner Brothers) and Frozen (Disney) are the top American performers overseas by far this past week.  Also, click here for a summary of worldwide performance by studio.