Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #39 of 2015 looks like $124 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, significantly above the norm for the weekend (see track below). Opening at 3,754 theaters Friday, Hotel Transylvania 2 from Sony is on track for a $48.0 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat above our $37.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). The film […]

  OPENINGS:  DESPICABLE ME 3 (Illumination/Universal) is the latest franchise to underdeliver this summer, with a 3-day studio estimate of $75.4M in the US.  That’s far below the $115.7M opening of Minions, and it compares badly with Despicable 2 as well, since that title earned $83.5M over its first weekend after having already banked $59.6M […]

> Now that THE HELP has opened about as well as Dreamworks/Disney could have hoped, the next goal is a 2d weekend decline of around 40%.  That would match the hold of Julie & Julia, and would make a $100M gross for Help very realistic.  The film’s only direct competition next weekend is the seemingly […]

  In an appropriately biblical development for this Easter weekend, it appears from preliminary numbers at Deadline that David will defeat Goliath, and the $12M-budgeted HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) will handily outgross the $100M+ TRANSCENDENCE (Warners).  On Friday, Heaven pulled in a reported $8M (on top of $7M from Wednesday and Thursday), and although […]

  OPENINGS:  MALEFICENT (Disney) didn’t come cheap–with worldwide marketing, its price-tag will top $300M.  But it seems to be money well spent, as its $24.2M Friday should propel it into a $70M+ weekend.  It’s also launching well overseas, with $20M on Friday from 35 markets (plus $21M from some of those markets in the 2 […]

A brief update this week.  Team Salem had the biggest week, up $81 million to $371 million through Sunday for the slate. A full week of Brave was the main driver for the gain.  The first Monday-Thursday period combined with the second weekend of Brave totaled $65 million, exactly matching the opening weekend number — a very good […]

  OPENINGS:  There have been a lot of busted franchises this summer, but ANNABELLE: CREATION (New Line/Warners) held strong, with a $35M opening weekend that was down just 5% from the first Annabelle.  The new entry is considerably more frontloaded than the first, down 22% on Saturday compared to 10%, which may mean a US […]

>The weekend studio estimates (based on Friday and Saturday actuals and projections for Sunday) are coming in somewhat stronger than the weekend numbers posted yesterday (based on Friday actuals only).  The box office volume for the top 12 films is now looking like $96 million for the weekend, up a very strong 31% from last […]