OPENINGS:  None of the studio releasing new films this weekend had much to be happy about.  BLAIR WITCH (Lionsgate) was the top of the newcomers in the US, but with a $9.7M start, it’s low-end even by the standards of cheap horror movies, and while its $5M production budget isn’t a problem, its $40-50M […]

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline present a Friday box office in which few titles moved more than 10% from Thursday, typical for the Christmas-to-New Year’s period.  The top 2, once again, were FROZEN (Disney) and THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Warners/MGM), although with the first moving up around 7% and the other declining by […]

Marvel’s The Avengers (distributed by Disney) increased again to $723 million to date overseas (up from $629 million last week), although the growth rate is starting to slow.  United Kingdom continues to lead the way overseas ($64.7 million so far now — up from $48.2 million this time last week).  Mexico remains the second-biggest territory ($50.3 million […]

  To the extent one can be disappointed by the boxoffice of a movie that’s cruised to $211.8M in 6 days, Wednesday was an off day for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.  Batman declined a fairly tough 23% yesterday for a $13.8M day.  That was about mid-range in terms of the results for the day’s Top […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is still marginally above last year and still +3% above the average for this point the past four years ($10.184 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $26.2 billion worldwide when […]

OPENINGS:  Fill in the ball/glass slipper/fairy tale reference of choice, because CINDERELLA (Disney) performed beautifully, with $70.1M in the US.  That puts it ahead of the $69.4M opening of Maleficent (unless adjusted numbers change things tomorrow), and below the $116.1M for Alice in Wonderland and the $79.1M for Oz the Great and Powerful.  Cinderella‘s 18% […]

  OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER 2 (Escape Artists/Columbia Sony) rode a relatively stable Saturday (down 5% from Friday) to a $35.8M weekend win, up about 5% from the opening for the first Equalizer in 2014.  That film had an 8% Saturday bump, suggesting that the sequel, like most sequels, will burn out faster than the original, […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #43 of 2013 looks like $96 million for the top 12 films, less than forecast but still up 12% to 18% from the same weekend in recent years. Opening at 3,336 theaters Friday, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa from Paramount grossed $12.6 million Friday and is on track for a $30.0 million opening weekend […]