> The tiny 3% drop in PUSS IN BOOTS‘ second weekend is truly remarkable, and could well lead to studios adopting DreamWorks’ strategy in the future of opening an animated movie on Halloween weekend and then having a de facto 2d opening the following week.  (However, the picture is still running $13M below Megamind‘s 10 […]

> Deadline has preliminary figures for Thursday’s boxoffice, and they appear to be fairly steady with Wednesday, consistent with last year’s pattern but below 2010’s totals.  MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL (Paramount) remains at the head of the pack with $6.2M, down about 10%.  This compares with $7.1M for last year’s #1 on the Thursday […]

> You’re frontloaded!  No, you’re frontloaded! OPENINGS:  The movie audience has 3 main components–men, women, kids–and a weekend that offers a strong title for each one has a good chance of being successful.  The relatively low-budget THE VOW (Screen Gems/Sony) got off to a great start (too bad it’s not a great movie), with $15.4M […]

> So what just happened, and what’s likely to happen next?  Here’s a quick look at what’s new in Panem: FINAL NUMBERS:  It turns out THE HUNGER GAMES wasn’t such a hit after all, earning a measly $152.5M in its first 3 days of release, instead of the estimated $155M.  Actually the discrepancy was pretty […]

  Deadline has preliminary boxoffice figures for Thursday, and reports that THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony) was at $16.3M for the day, down 30% from July 4th.  If that number holds, it would be slightly better than the 34% drop Transformers had on July 5 in 2007.  At this point in its run Transformers had earned $84.9M, or […]

  The calendar may say the 4th of July is approaching, but it’s looking an awful lot like Christmas at the boxoffice this weekend.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have both TED (Universal) and MAGIC MIKE (Warners) overperforming for smash hit weekends.  Ted is reportedly having a $20.5M Friday and possibly a $50M opening weekend, which would make it one […]

The Dark Knight Rises cooled to $45.6 million Saturday, down 39% from $75.1 million late-Thursday/Friday.  (In 2008, The Dark Knight dropped 29% on Saturday from Thursday/Friday, $47.7 million from $67.2 million.)  The opening weekend is now looking like an unofficial $161 million.  This would be the #3 opening all-time (behind #1 Marvel’s The Avengers at […]

Weekend #32 of 2012 looks like a fairly typical second weekend of August: the last gasp of summer with three films headed for modest success.  The top 12 films this weekend should total $136 million, up substantially from last week’s disaster weekend and near the pace for the same weekend the last few years. Opening […]