OPENINGS:  The east coast blizzard seems to have had less effect on the weekend box office than one might have assumed, considering that all the newcomers went up from Friday to Saturday, even though they were in typically front-loaded genres.  Their studio estimates have them bunched within a narrow $825K range for the weekend, […]

> X-Men: First Class grossed $64 million overseas this weekend, a little more than it achieved domestically this weekend.  If it hits $168 million in North America (as the ShowBuzzDaily Domestic Final model shows), it could be a $370-400 million picture worldwide. The Hangover Part II is up to $152 million overseas through this weekend.  […]

> It’s too little to make any meaningful difference for JOHN CARTER (Disney), but according to Deadline, the giant-budgeted spectacle didn’t have a bad Saturday.  Preliminary numbers have Carter rising by around 30% over its Friday total, which could mean a weekend over $30M.  A nice weekend multiple, though, still won’t touch the mountain of […]

  Note:  due to last week’s low-grossing Super Bowl Sunday, all weekend-to-weekend comparisons appear unusually strong this week. OPENINGS:  THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE:  SPONGE OUT OF WATER (Nickelodeon/Paramount) notched the #5 February opening ever with $56M (although not quite in a league with last year’s The LEGO Movie, which was #2 with $69.1M).  The studios seem […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio, including early 2018 dollars for films released later in 2017. We will start tracking the 2018 studio slates in a few weeks. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is now +7% above last […]

  This weekend’s boxoffice is something like a dead heat in a $5000 claiming race at a second-rate track.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE (Warners), END OF WATCH (Open Road) and HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET (Relativity) are all claiming identical $13.2M totals for the weekend.  This means […]

  OPENINGS:  THE BIKERIDERS (Regency/Focus/Universal) seized the opportunity to open on a prime summer weekend without any new tentpole releases, and the studio estimate (which assumed the strongest Sunday hold in the Top 10) was $10M, in line with expectations.  The question is how well the indie will hold up next week against new action […]

The weekend now looks like $70 million for the top 12 films, just a shade lower than the estimate yesterday.  The rank order remains the same, with Resident Evil: Retribution opening at #1 ahead of Finding Nemo 3D (although Nemo will outgross Retribution over the course of their theatrical runs).     The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic […]