The 29th weekend of the year is looking like $178 million for the top 12 films, about normal for this weekend on average the past few years but down significantly from last year, which was dominated by the opening of The Dark Knight Rises and the madness of the theater shooting in suburban Denver. Opening at […]

Weekend #34 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND August 19-21, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Kubo and the Two Strings Focus PG 90% 15.7 44 56 100 War Dogs WB R 63% 15.2 40 […]

  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony) didn’t succeed in outperforming other recent superhero movies in its Saturday matinees, and probably won’t supplant Captain America 2 as the year’s #1 opening to date, but it’s still rolling in money.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Amazing 2 dropped 4-6% on Saturday (by comparison, Captain 2 fell […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The 2014 Scorecard, updated with additional overseas grosses, has been updated below.  The 2015 Scorecard will be introduced toward the end of January. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is -4% behind last year but +7% above the average for this point the past […]

>The 11th weekend of the year should generate about $101 million for the top 12 films, a somewhat soft weekend for the third weekend in March — down 3% from last year’s comparable weekend and down a similar percentage from the four-year average for this weekend.  If the forecast is correct this will be the […]

NOTE:  THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT OFFICIAL STUDIO ESTIMATES FOR CHRISTMAS DAY. There was plenty under the tree for Hollywood this Christmas Day.  The major tinsel came from LES MISERABLES (Universal), which is projected to have an enormous, overperforming $18.2M opening day.  That would be a blockbuster pace if the movie can keep […]

  OPENINGS:  SPECTRE (MGM/Columbia/Sony) had the #7 opening of the year at $73M… yet there are signs of trouble.  While Skyfall rose 11% on its 2d day of wide release, and Casino Royale gained 5%, Spectre fell by 5%, actually slightly worse than the lightly-regarded Quantum of Solace.  Since Spectre wasn’t more frontloaded than Skyfall, […]

> Deadline‘s preliminary numbers for Friday have JOHN CARTER (Disney) at around $10M for the day, which depending on how much it plays as a family movie on Saturday, should mean a $25-30M weekend.  That’s not a horribly low number–it’s one of the half-dozen highest openings of the year so far–unless you’re trying to earn […]