The long holiday movie weekend began without much interest from audiences. OPENINGS: TAMMY (Warners) got underway with a so-so $6.2M, which includes $1.3M from Tuesday night shows. That suggests $32-35M for the 5-day weekend, around $20M of it during the Friday-Sunday period. Considering that both reviews and exit poll responses have been dismal, a […]
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney) had a sensational $11.2M start in Thursday night shows starting at 7PM. That’s the biggest Thursday night result of the year, edging out Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s $10.2M (although that had a slight handicap with its 8PM start time) and beating all of the summer’s other blockbusters. It’s […]
OPENINGS: IF I STAY (Warners/MGM) was the best of a weak trio, opening with $16.4M and with an 18% drop on Saturday that indicated moderate front-loading. It should reach a fair $40-50M US total, which could get it to breakeven if not profit. WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL (Affirm/TriStar/Sony), with a $9M weekend, was […]
OPENINGS: THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) was a bit softer on Saturday than Denzel Washington’s other hits at this box office level, up 8% compared to 11% for American Gangster and 19% for Safe House. (Possibly because Equalizer is a terrible movie.) That resulted in a $35M weekend that was slightly lower than Friday’s start had […]
Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #44 of 2014 looks like $76 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down a big 38% the norm for this weekend ($123 million), which admittedly does not usually have Halloween ruining it by falling on Friday. Opening at 2,766 theaters, Nightcrawler from Open Road Films grossed $3.2 million Friday and […]
NOTE: UPDATED THROUGHOUT WITH STUDIO ESTIMATES Black Friday was, as always, a very bright day for movies. The holiday weekend continues to belong to THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART I (Lionsgate), which soared 118% from Thursday to a terrific $24.1M. Even though Mockingjay continues to lag behind the previous Hunger Games installments, that’s a […]
Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #52 of 2014 looks like $192 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up +21% from the norm for this weekend ($158 million) and up +6% from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,131 theaters Thursday, Unbroken from Universal is on track for a $32.3 million opening three-day weekend (well above […]
Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2015 now looks like $142 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above the norm for the fourth weekend of the year, which usually struggles to get above $100 million. (See complete weekend track below.) All credit goes to American Sniper, which is truly extraordinary. […]