Official studio estimates are in for New Year’s Weekend in the US, but overseas numbers are still sketchy.  A few notes: ROGUE ONE (Lucasfilm/Disney) had a US result in keeping with preliminary numbers, up 15% on Sunday and with an anticipated 12% Monday drop.  This puts it at $439.7M domestically, 41% below The Force […]

  OPENINGS:  Once it became clear that the predicted $40M wasn’t going to happen, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (Sony) badly wanted to claim a $35M opening, and so it did.  Actually hitting that number will require the 2d lowest Sunday drop in the Top 10 (behind only the phenomenal Instructions Not Included, one […]

  OPENINGS:  Early January is a potent slot for horror movies, and M3GAN (Blumhouse/Universal) kicked off the year with a strong $30.2M, essentially the same as last year’s $30M for the rebooted Scream, despite all the franchise value of the latter (Scream also had the advantage of opening over the month’s holiday weekend).  M3gan has […]

  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, MAN OF STEEL (Warners) dropped 18% on its second full day of release to $36.1M.  That’s a good but not exceptional hold for a mega-opening; some recent comparisons are a 10% slip for Iron Man 3, 9% for The Great Gatsby, and an 18% decline for Fast & […]

  OPENINGS:  DON’T BREATHE (Screen Gems/Sony) had an unusually strong Saturday for a horror movie, down just 1% from Friday (which, remember, these days includes Thursday night).  By way of comparison, Lights Out fell 22% on its 2d day of release.  That propelled Don’t Breathe to an exceptional $26.1M weekend, the biggest opening for a […]

  OPENINGS:  The most hyped box office weekend of the year delivered and then some.  BARBIE (Mattel/Warners) burst into theaters with $155M, technically the best of the year (although the $146.4M for Super Mario Bros came after a Wed-Thurs start that had already brought in $58.3M).  Among the many records set by the blockbuster were […]

  OPENINGS:  Was it the cash grab of splitting the final novel into 2 movies?  The tabloid antics of its stars?  In any case, “close but no cigar” seems to be the result for THE TWILIGHT SAGA:  BREAKING DAWN PART 2 (Summit/Lionsgate).  Its $71.2M opening day (including Thursday 10PM and midnight screenings) is $400K below […]

> According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE PIRATES!  BAND OF MISFITS (Sony) will pull ahead of THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT (Universal) for the weekend thanks to Saturday and Sunday matinee business, although Engagement is still ahead as of Saturday and the race will be close.  (Both, however, will be behind Think Like A Man and […]