The 38th weekend of the year is looking like a wobbly $71 million for the top 12 films, down 19% from the $89 million multi-year average for this weekend. Opening at over 3,100 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Prisoners from Warner Brothers should average $5,900 per theater for the weekend (for […]

  OPENINGS:  DOCTOR STRANGE (Marvel/Disney) did what a Marvel movie is supposed to do.  In the US, its $85M debut was higher than the starts of Captain America and Thor (both $65-66M), and just a hair away from the November opening of Thor 2 ($85.7M), it not quite in a league with the $94.3M for […]

  THE MUMMY (Perfect World/Universal) is a disaster, although the studio and its minions will try to spin otherwise through the course of the weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it earned $12M on opening day ($2.7M of it from Thursday night), which puts it in line for a $30M weekend and a US […]

> The 2011 box office slump continues in full force.  The top 12 films this Christmas weekend should total an anemic $112 million, down 15% from the comparable weekend last year and not even close to the previous three years.  Of course, weekend comparisons are tricky because the calendar is particularly cruel this year, putting […]

>Thor remains at #1, while Bridesmaids opens above and Priest opens below expectations.  Fast Five sneaks into third place.  The weekend looks to be down 14% versus last year. Bridesmaids should open with $21.5 million this weekend and is on a pace to finish with $82 million in North America when it crosses the finish […]

> Click below for a quick summary of some notable numbers from this past weekend overseas: THE SMURFS reached $141M overseas with the help of a tremendous $60M weekend.  Like other recent 3D animated films, it has a good chance of doubling its US gross overseas.   RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, still […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is now running -7% behind last year (versus -6% through last week) and now -2% below the average for this point the past four years […]

  There were no pleasant surprises for anyone at the Friday box office, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  That even included STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (Legendary/Universal), which will easily win the weekend, but which–considering the very mild competition–fell more heavily than expected from last Friday, down 65% to $8.5M.  That drop will moderate over the […]