The 35th weekend of the year is looking like $83 million for the top 12 films, exactly in line with the Friday-Sunday portions of recent Labor Day weekends and among the three or four weakest weekends of the entire year.  After all, this is the weekend that has spawned Oogieloves and Shark Night 3D among other […]

  OPENINGS:  CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (Sony) had an even softer Friday than the early numbers claimed with $9.3M.  That’s barely ahead of the first Cloudy‘s $8.1M, and sequels tend to be more frontloaded than originals, which means the $35M weekend estimates being thrown around this morning, which assume exactly the same […]

  Considering its genre and target audience, BAD GRANDPA (Paramount) did very well in its second day, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, slipping just 4% to $12M.  By comparison, the three Jackass movies went down 20%/14%/24% on their first Saturdays, suggesting strong word of mouth and possibly a longer stay in theatres than one […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #47 of 2013 looks like $211 million for the top 12 films — not quite up to the standard of the weekend before Thanksgiving but not an embarrassment.   Opening at 4,163 theaters Friday, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire from Lionsgate/Summit grossed $68.9 million Friday and is on track for a $150.4 million […]

The 51st weekend of the year is looking like $141 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, above last year’s similar weekend but -7% below the multi-year average for this weekend. Opening at around 3,450 theaters today (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues from Paramount should average […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, the first weekend of 2014 looks like $138 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up about 10% from similar weekends the past few years.   Opening at 2,867 theaters Friday, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones from Paramount grossed $6.8 million Friday, putting the fifth in the franchise on track for an $18.1 million […]

As we continue to tally the films released wide in 2013, Disney has pulled ahead of Warner Brothers in worldwide box office for the 2013 slate (now an $18 million margin out of over $9 billion between the two rival studios).  Disney continues to benefit mightily from Frozen, both in North America and overseas.  For a complete […]

  OPENINGS:  NON-STOP (Universal) had the Friday lead with $10M, but that doesn’t mean it’ll take the weekend.  In any case, Universal’s investment will pay off handsomely–it covered only $12M of the budget for US rights (plus marketing costs in its territory, of course), and a likely weekend in the high $20Ms should mean US […]