OPENINGS:  OBLIVION (Universal) had a fairly good start, with a $13.3M Thursday night/Friday that should give it a $35-38M weekend, depending on word of mouth.  But that’s still lower than the $15.3M earned by GI Joe: Retaliation on its second day of release only 3 weeks ago, and at a probable higher cost (Universal […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #16 of 2013 is looking like $102 million for the top 12 films, down 19% from the same weekend last year and down 8% from the average the past few years for this weekend.   Opening at 3,783 theaters Friday, Oblivion from Universal grossed $13.3 million Friday and is on track for […]

  Tom Cruise’s OBLIVION (Universal) faced no significant competition for its opening this weekend, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it had a fairly strong $13.8M Friday (including $1.1M from Thursday night screenings), which should put it on track for a $35M+ weekend, a bit higher than Mitch Metcalf’s weekend prediction.  Nonetheless, with a […]

Only one new opener (Oblivion) and only one decent holdover (42) mean it’s pretty slim pickings at the box office this weekend: less than $100 million for the top 12 films, down 11-22% from the same weekend in recent years. Opening at around 3,800 theaters Friday (a very high number), Oblivion from Universal should average a […]

Through 14 weeks of the year, 2013 totals $2.232 billion (for wide-release films that have played at more than 400 theaters).  This remains well behind the 2012 pace ($2.624 billion) and the very similar 2010 pace ($2.618 billion).  However, 2013 continues to pull away from the particularly slow performance in 2011 ($2.071 billion). As a […]

The Croods was the big mover overseas this past week, up $38 million outside North America to $243 million overseas and $416 million worldwide.  The other big gainer outside of home was G.I. Joe: Retaliation (up $23 million overseas to $168 million overseas to date and just under $300 million worldwide). Slowing down a bit outside of the […]

  OPENINGS:  42 (Warners) had no trouble taking the weekend with an estimated $27.3M.  With very limited overseas appeal, the picture isn’t likely to be a huge moneymaker (production and marketing costs will reach at least $100M worldwide, and it probably won’t make that much in US theatres alone), but even a small amount of […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #15 of 2013 is now looking like $110 million for the top 12 films, up slightly from yesterday’s estimate and now up a few percentage points from the same weekend in prior years.   Opening at 3,003 theaters Friday, 42 from Warner Brothers grossed $9.1 million Friday and $11.4 million […]