OPENINGS:  When CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Sony) chose this weekend to open, it must have seemed like the perfect spot for a #1 ranking, with no direct competition and the previous week’s new title a sci-fi movie that might start big but would drop heavily in its second weekend.  Then Gravity happened, and suddenly Captain Phillips […]

  OPENINGS:  There was no question that  ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA (Marvel/Disney) would dominate Presidents Day weekend and become 2023’s first blockbuster.  Its $104M 3-day weekend (projected to reach $118M including Monday) was in line with expectations.  The film’s decent 2.26 Friday-to-weekend multiplier also demonstrated that, at least in the short term, the MCU is […]

Weekend #6 of 2014 is looking like a tepid $114 million for the top 12 films, a 30% increase over last year’s disaster for the comparable weekend (Identity Thief and Side Effects bowed this time last year).  But $114 is over 30% below the average for this weekend over the last four years.  For example, […]

  We won’t have confirmed Saturday numbers for several more hours (or final figures until Monday), but based on preliminary grosses at Deadline, DIVERGENT (Summit/Lionsgate) held surprisingly well on its second day of release, down just 14% to $19.7M.  That would be far better than the Day 2 drop for the original Twilight (down 41%), […]

  OPENINGS:  IF (Paramount) was at the low end of projections with $35M, although that was an improvement over where it seemed to be headed after Friday’s $10.4M.  The key was strong family turnout on Saturday, but while IF benefited from being the first major release for that demographic in the 11 weeks since Kung […]

> A surprisingly strong start for 2 low-budget arrivals, although the upside is limited by tomorrow’s Super Bowl. OPENINGS:  CHRONICLE (20th) had a slight $350K edge over THE WOMAN IN BLACK (CBS Films) on Friday, and both are in frontloaded genres, appealing to young men and young women, respectively.  Young men are more likely to […]

  Veterans Day isn’t considered one of the major Hollywood holidays, but this year it provided some 3-day weekends that boosted Friday numbers (although that may catch up with some totals over the weekend and when next week is compared to it). The other note for the weekend is that all three of the major […]

The top 10 films December 26, 2014 totaled $63.3 million,right at the average $63.1 million for the days since 2002 when December 26 landed on a Friday-Sunday.  The last time December 26 fell on a Friday (2008), the day’s top 10 films added up to a similar $63.5 million.  The 11 days December 16-26 total […]