> Overseas, The Smurfs film continues to do solid business and is closing in on two more benchmarks: $400 million overseas (only $7 million to go) and $550 million worldwide ($13 million to go).  $550 million is important because that would match Cars 2, which it now looks like it can pass. DreamWorks and Disney’s […]

  Deadline is reporting that THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony) has set a new all-time Tuesday record with $32-35M, beating previous record-holder Transformers, the last movie to open on a Tuesday that fell on July 3, which had $27.9M in 2007.  (There are, admittedly, very few movies that open on Tuesdays–after Transformers, the next was the […]

Weekend #27 of 2012 looks pretty solid: $185 million for the top 12 films, up 27% from last year’s comparable weekend and up 22% from the four-year average for the weekend. Much of this increase can be attributed to the calendar and the unusual placement of July 4 on a Wednesday, having little effect on […]

> The Hollywood Reporter has some rough early numbers for Friday’s boxoffice, and the news looks good for CAPTAIN AMERICA:  THE FIRST AVENGER.  Including Thursday midnight grosses of $4M, it seems to be around $25M for the day.  This would be right in the neighborhood of its Marvel-mate Thor, which had a $25.5M opening day […]

> UPDATE:  The Reporter has some early Friday numbers, and the storm’s effect can already be seen at the boxoffice.  THE HELP seems likely to win the weekend as expected, but with a lower-than anticipated $12-13M.  COLOMBIANA was in second on Friday, heading for a weekend of perhaps $10M.  DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK […]

> Deadline has early numbers for Saturday and the weekend, and there aren’t any major surprises. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 is overwhelming everything else in the market even after its expected big drop from Friday (which included $8M from Thursday midnight shows).  If the preliminary $18M Saturday number bears true, the movie will have a better […]

> NEW YEAR’S EVE (Warners):  Hardly any bump from Saturday night couples meant about as low an opening as anyone could have reasonably imagined.  Even with some play during Christmas week, the picture may struggle to earn more than its $56M production budget (which is separate from a likely $100M+ worldwide marketing budget).  After J. […]

> Beware the round-number weekend estimate. OPENINGS:  THE GREY (Open Road) is claiming an even $20M gross for the weekend, which would make tomorrow’s adjusted number starting with “19” no surprise at all.  In any case, it’s a bit lower than Liam Neeson’s other starts in his new career as an action star, but Grey […]