OPENINGS:  Even with a big Mother’s Day bump of 24% (the same as last year’s Snatched), the $18.5M weekend for LIFE OF THE PARTY (New Line/Warners) is the lowest of Melissa McCarthy’s starring career, and even lower than Snatched‘s $19.5M.  The Mother’s Day bump means that next weekend’s drop will likely be dramatic, and […]

  In an entertainment universe changing with bewildering speed, two stories today spoke to the difficulties and opportunities of old and new media.  First, let’s take a look at what’s happening to the traditional mode of seeing movies in theaters Big-budget adventure-adventure spectacles have long been the bread and butter of the Hollywood studios, and […]

Weekend #34 of 2014 is looking like $111 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 30% from the norm for this weekend and the fourth up weekend in a row after six straight down weekends. Opening at over 2,750 theaters Friday (just below the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Frank […]

  CINDERELLA (Disney) had an enchanted Friday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, with $23M (that includes $2.3M from Thursday night), and since its target audience is all about weekend matinees, it should be at $70M and perhaps even $75M by Sunday.  That would be better than the $69.4M opening for Maleficent, which had a […]

  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, the 600-pound gorilla of the holiday movie box office season (The Hobbit 2 is by comparison a smaller simian, at least in the US) opens tonight, and the question is just how big it will be.  The first Hunger Games opened in March 2012 and had the 6th biggest […]

>The Worldwide Box Office revenue chart has been expanded to the Top 30 releases this week (currently the cut-off to make the list is about $150 million worldwide).  Through Sunday, The Smurfs have moved up to #8 and is closing in on $500 million worldwide ($144 million domestic and an incredible $345 million overseas). Rise […]

  OPENINGS:  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (Marvel/Disney) won’t arrive on these shores until Thursday night, but it’s already in 37 international territories covering over half the world (although not yet China), and has deposited $101.2M in the Marvel account.  Next week’s US opening is expected to be in the $150M neighborhood.  To date, […]

  FURY (Columbia/Sony) was expected to dominate the multiplexes this weekend, and it will indeed have no trouble notching the win, but it’s not performing with particular strength.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give it a $8-9M Friday ($1.2M of it from Thursday night), which suggests a weekend no higher than $25M.  That compares to $37.5M […]