Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #42 of 2014 looks like a decent $126 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 13% above the norm for this weekend ($111 million). Opening at 3,173 theaters, Fury from Sony grossed $8.8 million Friday and is on track for a $25.1 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our $30.0 million […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #46 of 2014 looks like $135 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up from yesterday’s estimate ($128 million) but still down 29% the norm for this weekend ($191 million) but up (+13%) from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,154 theaters, Dumb and Dumber To from Universal grossed $14.2 […]

  THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (New Line/MGM/Warners) had a royal start with $11.2M in shows that began at 7PM on Tuesday night.  This is the first Hobbit movie to open midweek, but the Tuesday number is better than the $8.8M that The Desolation of Smaug earned on its opening Thursday night […]

  OPENING:  THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2:  ANGEL OF DEATH (Relativity) fell to 4th place for the weekend, as expected, after a strong opening day.  Still, a $15.1M haul for the cheap thriller isn’t at all bad, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see a Woman in Black 3 come along in a year or […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is the updated 2015 Scorecard, with Universal pulling into a very close second place (just behind Warner Brothers) thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey.  This performance from Focus and Universal is the first bit of good news in a long time for the hapless Comcast corporation, as its proposed acquisition of […]

  HOME (DreamWorks Animation/20th) should soothe the embattled studio and its investors a bit.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Home earned $15M on Friday, almost double the $8M start for DWA’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and almost in a league with the $18.8M first day for How To Train Your Dragon 2.  That should […]

  OPENINGS:  SPY (20th) came in at the low end of expectations with $30M–a number that may very well come down tomorrow when actuals are announced, since it assumes an aggressively strong Sunday hold.  Even at $30M, Spy is below the $39.1M start for The Heat and the $34.6M launch of Identity Thief, and although […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #29 of 2015 looks like $185 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a touch above the norm for this weekend and way above last year’s weak weekend. Opening at 3,856 theaters Friday, Ant-Man from Marvel and Disney is on track for a $58.0 million opening three-day weekend (slightly below our $64.5 million […]