There wasn’t much shift in position among the top titles at the Saturday box office.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (Nickelodeon/Paramount) kept its $1M edge over GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney), roughly $11M to $10M.  For Turtles, that’s down about 50% from last Saturday, and suggests it will end […]

>It was an even merrier Christmas than the studios were anticipating, as most of the holiday openings zoomed up more than 100% from their Saturday grosses, with even more of an increase expected on Monday. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL (Paramount): Still very much at the front of the pack, with a terrific 120% boost […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +2% above last year and still +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($4.039 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $10.9 billion worldwide […]

  A great start for the weekend, if you overlook the fact that 2 of the 3 new arrivals flopped. OPENINGS:  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony) has successfully rebooted the franchise, no question about it.  (Unless it tanks overseas, which is hugely unlikely.)  But Spidey hasn’t come back quite at full strength:  even with a 6-day […]

  OPENINGS:  We’re starting to get a feel for what this pandemic box office looks like, absent big-studio blockbusters.  This week’s HONEST THIEF (Open Road) opened at $3.7M in 2425 theatres (a weekend per-theatre $1525 average), just about the same as last week’s The War With Grandpa, even though they’re in completely different genres.  Honest […]

  OPENINGS:  ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (TriStar/Sony) continued its frontloaded box office swoon, with a 28% Sunday drop and probably another 25% today (the Monday number will likely be 75% below what the movie earned on opening day).  Despite more than doubling the Friday box office of The Butler, it will end up losing […]

  OPENINGS:  David Cronenberg is a venerated filmmaker, but not a source of many box office hits:  in a career that spans more than 4 decades, his highest-grossing film in the US is still 1986’s The Fly at $40.5M (a little over $100M adjusted for inflation).  That won’t change with his brooding and frequently grotesque […]

  OPENINGS:  INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR (Screen Gems/Sony) reaffirmed the strength of the low-budget horror genre with a $32.7M start, better than the $29.6M launch of 2018’s The Last Key (which didn’t feature the full original cast).  Red Door should reach $65M+ in the US, guaranteeing profitability on a reported $16M production budget and relatively […]