OPENINGS:  Saturday showed an 18% drop for FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal), but really the number was better than it looked, because “Friday” included $6.5M from Thursday night.  With that factored out, the movie held almost dead even on Saturday, and should be headed for a $120M+ 4-day weekend, easily the 4th best Memorial […]

Now if the Madagascar animals had to battle the Prometheus aliens, that might have been interesting. OPENINGS:  PROMETHEUS (20th) edged out MADAGASCAR 3 (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) for Friday honors ($21.4M to $20.5M), but girls, you’re both pretty.  Madagascar should pull ahead for the weekend thanks to family matinees (and what could be mixed word of mouth […]

  OPENINGS:  ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (TriStar/Sony) continued its frontloaded box office swoon, with a 28% Sunday drop and probably another 25% today (the Monday number will likely be 75% below what the movie earned on opening day).  Despite more than doubling the Friday box office of The Butler, it will end up losing […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is still down -2% from last year and still +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($8.353 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $23.4 billion […]

  Darren Aronofsky’s NOAH (Paramount) began screening at 7PM last night and took in $1.6M, a very respectable result for a serious film aimed at older and perhaps family audiences.  (No one expected it to be in a league with the $4.9M for Divergent or $3.6M for 300: Rise of An Empire.)  Because it’s one […]

  OPENINGS:  PAW PATROL:  THE MIGHTY MOVIE (Nickelodeon/Paramount) launched with $23M, above expectations and an impressive rise over the $13.1M start for the 2021 installment of the franchise.  It also has $23.1M overseas from 45 markets (the 2021 film earned 72% of its global total internationally).  This series is produced at relatively low cost by […]

  OPENINGS:  ALIEN: COVENANT (TSG/20th) slumped almost as badly on its 2d day of release as the unpopular Prometheus (22% vs 25%), and the result was a lackluster $36M weekend in the US–and even that number includes an aggressive estimate for Sunday.  Worse yet, with Covenant now playing in every major international market except China […]

>Accurate theater counts are in, and we have adjusted the per theater averages, as well as updated critical sentiment as we head into the very slow Labor Day weekend. Apollo 18 opens today at 3,328 theaters, and we expect a low $4,000 average per theater this weekend (Friday-Sunday only, as we always do).  We have […]