Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #19 of 2013 looks like $152 million for the top 12 films, about the same as the $151 million estimate yesterday.  Iron Man 3 picked up the pace with a very strong second Saturday (moving from an estimated $67.4 million second weekend yesterday to $72.5 million today), while […]

  There were no surprises at the Thursday box office, and certainly no pleasant ones for the previous day’s openings.  Ticket sales won’t have the usual Friday pop today, as many have other plans for the 4th of July, but Saturday should rebound nicely. OPENINGS:  All of the Wednesday arrivals dropped on their 2d day […]

> NEW YEAR’S EVE (Warner Bros):  So much for that franchise.  New Year’s was expected to have a softer start than Valentine’s Day, which opened on a holiday weekend that included the titular day itself.  But there’s “soft” and then there’s a 65% decline from Valentine’s opening day.  New Year’s will have a longer playing […]

The fourth up weekend in a row, weekend #42 will be about 19% ahead of the multi-year average for this weekend.  However, Paranormal Activity 4 is on track for an opening weekend way below expectations and easily the softest of the franchise.  The weekend remains relatively strong, however, because of a fairly deep bench of […]

  RIO 2 (20th/Blue Sky) appears to be losing altitude, according to preliminary box office numbers at Deadline.  The sequel reportedly climbed 30-34% on its second day of release, from $11.9M on Friday to $16M or less.  That would be a big drop from the 69% bump the first Rio had on its initial Saturday […]

The 24th weekend of the year is looking like a very good $201 million for the top 12 films, well above the same weekend the last few years.   Opening at over 4,200 theaters Friday (well into the top 10% of theater counts), Man of Steel from Warner Brothers should average $26,400 per theater for the […]

> The fourth weekend of 2012 is a touch better than the same weekend last year, but it’s a somewhat below average weekend looking at the past four years.  The Grey is opening at #1 at almost $19 million, somewhat higher than expected.    The Grey is coming in above forecast, pulling in $6.4 million […]

  Valentine’s Day is an enormous moviegoing event each year, so it remains to be seen whether Friday’s brisk business will translate to the rest of the holiday weekend. OPENINGS:  ABOUT LAST NIGHT (Screen Gems/Sony) barely missed 1st place with $13M on Friday, beaten by $30K, but it’s off to an impressive start, especially when […]