OPENINGS:  We had a new wide release this weekend, and THE WAR WITH GRANDPA (101) managed a win over the weary Tenet with $3.6M.  That’s certainly not a number that would make anyone feel good in non-pandemic times, and since War With Grandpa had a semblance of a national marketing campaign, it’s not at […]

  There wasn’t much shift in position among the top titles at the Saturday box office.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (Nickelodeon/Paramount) kept its $1M edge over GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney), roughly $11M to $10M.  For Turtles, that’s down about 50% from last Saturday, and suggests it will end […]

  OPENINGS:  The box office may not have hit bottom yet (see “Next Weekend” below), but it’s getting close, with the horror movie THE INVITATION (Screen Gems/Sony) topping the weekend at a painful $7M.  Things were no better overseas, where the film opened at $1.6M in 19 markets.  Despite these numbers, The Invitation may still […]

  OPENINGS:  LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS (DC/Warners) arrived with a blah $23M, given its franchise-adjacent pedigree and starry voice cast, and it wasn’t very animated overseas either, with $18.4M in 63 markets.  It faces almost no competition for family audiences through the rest of the summer, which may help it stretch its run by enough to […]

  OPENINGS:  HUNTER KILLER (Millenium/Summit Premiere/Lionsgate) had a weak $6.7M start, and probably won’t reach $20M in the US, not even enough to pay for the costs of its US release, and a low for a Gerard Butler action movie.  Its international campaign has a sluggish $4M so far, with $3.2M this weekend in 16 […]

> Reviews have been coming in progressively worse for Cars 2, dropping from 50% positive at RottenTomatoes to 37% as of Friday morning.  In line with this trend is Mitch Salem’s review of the film.  The words “lazy” and “phoning it in” seem to summarize what reviewers think, and that does not bode well for […]

>2012 is underway with one wide release this weekend (and only 2,000 theaters or so at that) and one major expansion.  The Devil Inside should battle Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol for the top spot this weekend.  As a whole, the weekend volume for the top 12 films will be around $102 million, up about […]

No changes in the studio rankings this week, the top two studios had enormous weeks (each around $250 million) from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (Warner Brothers) and Frozen (Disney), with each film experiencing a significantly upgraded domestic total forecast and very big grosses overseas.  For a complete ranking of 2013 films individually by worldwide performance click here. TOTAL NORTH […]