At a cost of $175M (meaning $300M+ with global marketing), SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (Universal) is a long way from profit.  But credit the studio with making “Snow White” seem cool enough to garner a solid opening (and credit the studio as well with cannily minimizing expectations, so a solid opening passes for […]

Weekend #22 of 2012 looks like it will total about $122 million for the top 12 films, down 21% from last year’s comparable weekend and down 20% from the four-year average for the weekend.  That would make it three down weekends (way down) in a row.   Opening at an estimated 3,700 theaters, Snow White and […]

Now 21 full weeks into 2012, year-to-date domestic box office is running 15% ahead of last year’s pace.  Just two weeks ago, box office was running 21% ahead of 2011.  The past week was off a stunning 32% from the same week last year when The Hangover Part II grossed $118 million (Thursday-Sunday, May 26-29), Pirates of the Caribbean: On […]

Memorial Day weekend pushed Team Metcalf’s front-loaded slate to $682 million through Monday in the second annual ShowbuzzDaily Summer Movie Fantasy Draft, with only two significant films left to open on his slate: Prometheus (#8 pick overall) and Madagascar 3 (#11), both opening June 8.  Team Weil totals $47 million so far (with Battleship his lone film to have opened).  Weil’s […]

    Beware of studio estimates and round numbers. OPENINGS:  In order to get MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) to a round $70M for the 4-day weekend, the studio had to claim the lowest Monday drop of the market’s Top 9 films–even though MIB3 hasn’t shown any particular strength with the family matinee audience (its […]

Marvel’s The Avengers (distributed by Disney) increased again to $782 million to date overseas (up from $723 million last week), although the growth rate continues to slow down.  (Click “read more” to see the updated weekly chart.)   We are now projecting The Avengers will finish around $1.46 billion worldwide.                   […]

Men in Black 3 now looks like a $55.0 million weekend, according to the studio estimate this morning (up from yesterday’s early estimate and now exactly hitting our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowBuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  The other new film this weekend, Chernobyl Diaries, is now even lower than projected yesterday: $8.0 million Friday-Sunday.       The […]

    Don’t hold your breath for Men In Black 4.   OPENINGS:  The US 3-day weekend numbers on MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) are in accord with last night’s lackluster preliminary estimate of $55M.  Sony is predicting $70M for the full holiday weekend, which may be a stretch, as it would allow for only […]