Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #1 of 2013 is on pace for $124 million, very much line with the comparable weekend in previous years.  Texas Chainsaw 3D is opening somewhat better than forecast ($22.5 million versus our forecast of $17.8 million), while Django Unchained continues to perform solidly. In limited release, The Impossible is stronger than forecast […]

Based on Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #6 of 2013 is looking a little stronger than it did yesterday (now $89 million for the top 12 films versus the $84 million estimate based only on Friday’s results).  But this is still over 46% behind the pace for the same weekend the last few years.       […]

  OPENINGS:  OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Disney) is having an oddly topsy-turvy weekend.  On the one hand, in the US it got the Saturday bump it needed from family audiences, rising 37% (better than Alice in Wonderland, although nowhere near The Lorax), allowing it to claim a $80.3M weekend.  Even if that number comes […]

  OPENINGS:  EVIL DEAD (TriStar/Sony/FilmDistrict) took the weekend with $26M, and even though, based on Sunday results for other recent horror movies, that number may drop a bit with final figures tomorrow, it should end up with a pleasantly bloody $50M before it’s done in the US (it also made $4.5M this weekend in 21 international […]

  OPENINGS:  IRON MAN 3 (Disney) was exactly where it was expected to be, its $68.3M US opening day (the 8th largest ever) considerably higher than Iron Man 2‘s $51.2M, but not quite in a league with The Avengers’ $80.8M.  That should mean a $170M-ish weekend.  Meanwhile, Iron 3 has made a spectacular $388.3M internationally […]

  OPENINGS:  FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) dropped 16% on Sunday and estimates a 13% slip on Monday–that latter number may be a little overoptimistic, but even if it turns out that the 4-day total is $119M instead of $120M, it matters very little except to Universal’s press people.  FF6 was easily the 4th best […]

Updated international box office chart:

  Our summertime look at the health of Hollywood’s studios continues.  We’ve already examined Disney and Warner Bros, and today Paramount is in our viewfinder. Since getting out of both the Marvel and the DreamWorks Animation business, Paramount has been sedate, even sedentary, with the quietest summer of any studio.  Management has been fairly stable, […]