Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #31 of 2015 looks like $143 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, near the norm for this weekend (see track below). Opening at 3,956 theaters Friday, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation from Paramount is on track for a $55.0 million opening three-day weekend (matching our $55.0 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). The film is […]

>Through Thursday (and including the midnight showings of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2), Team Metcalf is clinging to a $109 million lead over Team Salem.  Of course, that lead will turn into a tie sometime Saturday night, and Salem will regain the lead Sunday.  Go Captain America and Cowboys and Aliens in […]

> The past week (seven days ending Sunday) came in up 25% versus last year’s comparable week (the first significant increase in five weeks).  Year-to-date box office is now down 7% versus last year.    The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between July 11 and July 17 grossed $331 […]

  Early numbers at Deadline and elsewhere make DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th) the runaway winner at the Friday box office with $26-27M.  That could give it a weekend as high as $70M, at the high end of expectations and breezing past Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its $54.6M […]

  OPENINGS:  The only wide opening of the aweek was the low-budget horror movie SEPARATION (Open Road), which had a slow start at $1.8M. There were some new limited releases, led by FOUR GOOD DAYS (Vertical) at 298 theatres, with a $300K weekend that translated into a per-theatre average of $1K.  THE RESORT (Vertical) at […]

> Through Memorial Day, the Summer Movie Draft is starting to tighten up.  Team Metcalf leads $318 million to $298 million for Team Salem.  But keep in mind that Salem has two movies opening (the well-reviewed X-Men: First Class and the eagerly anticipated Super 8) before Metcalf’s next movie (Mr Popper’s Penguins).  The race  should […]

  Despite a trio of new arrivals, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT (Skydance/Alibaba/Paramount) will ride strong reviews and word of mouth to an easy second consecutive weekend crown.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have Friday at $9.8M, down 57% from last week, and better than the 60% drop for the 2nd Friday of Rogue Nation.  With that […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #33 of 2013 looks like an okay $120 million for the top 12 films, up 6% from the average for this weekend the past few years but down 6% from last year’s comparable weekend.  Opening at 2,933 theaters Friday, Lee Daniels’ The Butler from Weinstein grossed $8.3 million Friday and is on track […]