This weekend is normally dead.  On average, last weekend (the three days after Thanksgiving) is the 7th busiest of the year, while this weekend (the first in December) is normally ranked 50th in terms of volume.  Last year, there were no wide releases on the comparable weekend, and two years ago only one film was […]

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between November 19 and November 25 grossed an excellent $325 million, up 19% from the four-year average for the week and up 25% from the same week last year.   Over the last four weeks,  The past six weeks are now 15% […]

The big movers overseas this past week were Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (up $151 million to $351 million to date overseas) and Skyfall (up $61 million to $568 million overseas to date).  Updated worldwide tracks for Twilight and the completely re-energized James Bond follow.     Entering the worldwide chart this week are Rise of the Guardians (starting at […]

  No great disconnects between Saturday’s estimates and Sunday’s, although one number needs some scrutiny. OPENINGS:  RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) was at the top of the new arrivals, but with a very disappointing $24M weekend ($32.6M over 5 days).  At that rate, it’s going to have to struggle to hold onto its theatres […]

  Franchises and a former President may carry the weekend to record heights, but the newcomers stumbled. OPENINGS:  RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) has the advantage of no new animated competition through the entire holiday season (Disney/Pixar is re-releasing a 3D conversion of Monsters Inc in mid-December), and it’s going to need that long […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #47 is now on pace to exceed the multi-year average for this weekend by over 20% — a much stronger pace than the Wednesday-Thursday pre-weekend box office suggested.   Rise of the Guardians from Paramount/ DreamWorks opened with $8.6 million Wednesday-Thursday and added $9.3 million Friday, putting it on pace for […]

Based on grosses from Wednesday and Thanksgiving, Weekend #47 is on pace to exceed the multi-year average for this weekend by 10% — exactly on the pace we forecast earlier in the week.  Breaking Dawn Part 2 is running slightly behind our forecast pace in this second weekend, but still clearly #1 for the weekend. […]

  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, something unexpected happened on Thanksgiving Day:  two of the holiday weekend’s openings changed places in the boxoffice ranks. LIFE OF PI (20th), which had been considerably behind on Wednesday, reportedly took a 24% leap on Thursday to $4.5M.  This is similar to the track for last year’s Hugo, […]