OPENINGS:  Universal continued to be the main supplier of fresh product to gasping theatres, with both of the weekend’s wide openings.  They will, per the studio’s deals, be available at home in about 3 weeks–an arrangement that looks awfully good for theatres compared to Warners’ new plan to day-and-date releases at home from opening […]

  The news didn’t get better for any of the weekend’s openings on Saturday, according to early numbers at Deadline–and that’s before the effect, if any, of Sunday’s east coast storms.  ARGO (Warners) beat them all with its 3rd weekend $12.5M, down under 25% from last weekend.  CLOUD ATLAS (Warners) was considerably behind, struggling to […]

  OPENINGS:  As usual with new arrivals, the eager studios behind GI JOE: RETALIATION (Paramount/MGM) have claimed a low Sunday decline (2d lowest in the Top 10), so the $41.2M weekend and $51.7M opening 4 days could slip a bit when final numbers are released tomorrow–and even if they don’t, that 4 day figure is […]

Marvel’s The Avengers now looks like a $55.1 million weekend, according to the studio estimate this morning (now exactly hitting our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowBuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  The new films this weekend are trailing badly, however.  Battleship looks like a $25.4 million opening weekend and we are projecting a final gross of $62 million domestically.  The […]

  Franchises have been dropping like flies this year, but one brand name that still works is Marvel.  Its latest extravaganza DOCTOR STRANGE (Marvel/Disney) had an opening day of at least $32M according to preliminary numbers at Deadline (including $9.4M from Thursday night), which should give it a $80M+ weekend.  As the kick-off to a […]

  They deleted Massacre from its title, but it’s still mowing down the competition. OPENINGS:  Why does Hollywood make ultraviolent movies?  Because they sell tickets.  TEXAS CHAINSAW (Lionsgate) is overperforming its way to a surprisingly strong weekend win, with $10.2M on its first night.  Horror movies are hugely front-loaded, so it’s unlikely to be higher […]

For the 16 days December 16-31, the top 10 films each day in North America have totaled $871 million, now virtually even with last year’s pace and now -12% behind the record pace of 2015, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens dominated the holiday season. With Rogue One last year and The Last Jedi this year, the Star Wars franchise has definitely taken the holiday movie […]

Weekend #24 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND June 10-12, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection The Conjuring 2 WB R 64% 35.0 95 190 285 Now You See Me 2 LG PG13 39% 26.5 […]