OPENINGS:  Almost all the “early Friday” numbers turned out to be overly optimistic, but THE HEAT (20th) is still having a great opening, with a $13.6M first day that should put it in the neighborhood of a $37M weekend.  That puts it ahead of Melissa McCarthy’s $34.6M opening with Identity Thief, and remarkably enough, […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #26 of 2013 looks like an okay $181 million for the top 12 films, even with or slightly down from the same weekend in recent years.  Not a bad weekend at all, just not the blistering pace of the last two weekends. Opening at 3,181 theaters Friday, The Heat from 20th Century Fox […]

  Preliminary box office numbers at Deadline have THE HEAT (20th) overperforming with a $15M Friday, which could give it a $40M opening weekend, almost as much as the movie cost to produce.  That means the first 3 days for the Sandra Bullock/Melissa McCarthy pairing may nearly match the first 4 days of The Hangover […]

  Neither THE HEAT (20th) nor WHITE HOUSE DOWN (Sony) is expected to turn many heads at the box office this weekend (Mitch Metcalf’s predictions are here), and that was reflected in their early Thursday night and midnight Friday results.  White House, which started its screenings at 7PM, earned $1.35M, while The Heat, which waited until […]

The 26th weekend of the year (halfway through already!) is looking like an on-target $189 million for the top 12 films, within a few percentage points of the comparable weekend the last few years.     Opening at around 3,000 3,222 theaters Friday (somewhat above the average 2,886 theater count for opening weekend wide releases), White […]

Updated international box office chart:

STUDIO SCORECARD. Disney solidified its grip on first place in worldwide box office (thanks to Monsters University), while Paramount jumped ahead of 20th Century Fox courtesy of World War Z. TOTAL NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE. Looking at wide-release films in North America (those that play on at least 400 screens at some point), 2013 now […]

  OPENINGS:  Allowing for the usual studio practice of predicting lower-than-typical Sunday drops to boost the numbers a bit, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (Disney/Pixar) opened in line with expectations at what may be slightly less than the $82M number announced today.  That puts it only behind 3 other big-ticket animated sequels (the last Toy Story and 2 […]