One useful way to look at box office momentum is to compare the Opening (normally the first Friday-Sunday or in some cases the first wide-release weekend and all the additional days before that) to the Next 7 Days, the first full week in wide release (from the first Monday in wide release through the second […]

  OPENINGS:  THOR: THE DARK WORLD (Disney) held essentially even on Saturday, an excellent result for a franchise movie, especially where a chunk of its “Friday” number had come from Thursday night screenings.  (In comparison, Iron Man 3 dropped 10% on its second day of release.)  Presumably because of that strong Saturday hold, Disney is […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #40 of 2014 looks like $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 25% above the norm for this weekend ($104 million).  A great start for the fall movie season. Opening at 3,014 theaters, Gone Girl from 20th Century Fox grossed $13.2 million Friday and is on track for a […]

And now the waiting game begins for Team Metcalf.  With all but one movie now open, the Metcalf slate now totals almost $1.1 billion to date, with a little but of upside remaining in Madagascar 3 and to some extent Prometheus. Team Salem’s top two films open very soon:  Brave from Pixar this Friday and Amazing Spider-Man […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now +4% above last year and now +5% above the average for this point the past four years ($4.864 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over […]

The 24th weekend of the year is looking like a very good $201 million for the top 12 films, well above the same weekend the last few years.   Opening at over 4,200 theaters Friday (well into the top 10% of theater counts), Man of Steel from Warner Brothers should average $26,400 per theater for the […]

  OPENINGS:  Even though THE DISASTER ARTIST (A24) was at just 840 theatres, its $6.4M weekend had no trouble topping its woeful newcomer competition.  That total (which may come down a bit in finals, because A24 tends to be optimistic in its Sunday estimates) translated into a $7700 per-theatre weekend average, notably better than the […]

  At the beginning of the month, the success of Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was prompting some to excitedly conclude that the box office year was now truly 52 weeks long.  But the second half of August remains a lousy time to launch a movie, a fact that’s being borne […]