Updated international box office chart:

  The answer to yesterday’s box office question–would THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (New Line/MGM/Warners) look more like The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King or Twilight: Eclipse along the course of its 5-day weekend opening–it leaning toward the vampires, which is not good news for Middle-Earth.  On its 2d full day […]

  THE REVENANT (Regency/20th) is showing impressive strength in its first day of wide release, after 2 strong weeks at NY/LA arthouses.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give it $14M+ on Friday, putting it surprisingly into 1st place and confirming that Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the few “movie stars” these days who actually sells tickets.  […]

  We’re just about 24 hours away from the US arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the kick-off of the summer movie season, and in our survey of each studio’s schedule and prospects, we’ve already taken a look at Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.  Today:  the House of Murdoch, aka 20th Century Fox. LAST […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #16 of 2015 looks like $105 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, somewhat below the norm for this weekend. Opening at 3,633 theaters Friday, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 from Sony is on track for a $22.0 million opening three-day weekend (slightly below our $24.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). The film is pacing […]

Django Unchained leads the way this week (up $22 million overseas since last week), followed closely by Les Miserables (up $18 million overseas) and Wreck-It Ralph (also up $18 million from some late-playing territories). The only other North American films up double-digits since last week are Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (up $17 million), Silver Linings Playbook (up $11 million) and Flight (up $10 million). […]

  OPENINGS:  Both of the weekend’s big arrivals found their audiences.  WRECK-IT RALPH (Disney) had to settle for $49.1M after Saturday’s 58% bump–not that huge for an animated title–but if those numbers hold, it’ll still be enough to set a record for (non-Pixar) Walt Disney Animation, beating the 48.8M for Tangled. FLIGHT (Paramount) had a […]

Total Recall joins the chart this week in the middle of the pack, with a projected $66 million final domestic total and $6 million to date overseas.  It might get to $95 million overseas ultimately, which would put its eventual worldwide total around $160 million (just behind The Dictator, not what Sony was banking on). Diary of […]