> According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THINK LIKE A MAN (Screen Gems/Sony) is overperforming in a big way, and should easily take the first non-Hunger Games weekend in over a month.  Man‘s opening day is estimated at $12M, and assuming a Tyler Perry level of frontloading (specifically Why Did I Get Married Too, which […]

  OPENINGS:  There was more loose change behind the Friday cushions for OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Disney) than the early estimate had found, and at $24.1M, it seems likely to reach at least $70M for the weekend, sparing Disney some embarrassment.  But opening at the same level as last year’s The Lorax–down 40% from […]

  OPENINGS:  MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT (Skydance/Alibaba/Paramount) rode almost unanimous rave reviews to a franchise-high $61.5M weekend opening in the US.  (That record doesn’t adjust for inflation, and comes with an asterisk because the first two in the series opened on Wednesdays, with Mission 2 at $78.8M by its first Sunday.)  If Fallout runs like Rogue […]

  Last week we ran through all the major Hollywood studios–Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal–to see how their summers have been going.  Today we’ll take a look at Lionsgate, which is generally considered a “mini-major,” a studio that doesn’t release films with the volume or budget of the majors, but […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #15 of 2015 looks like $130 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, above the norm for this weekend but a touch below the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,366 theaters Friday, The Longest Ride from Fox is on track for a $14.0 million opening three-day weekend (slightly below our $15.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast […]

  OPENINGS:  The race between DUMB AND DUMBER TO (Red Granite/Universal) and Big Hero 6 may get a bit closer tomorrow, since Universal has aggressively estimated a 28% Sunday drop even though Dumb fell 2% on Saturday.  (By comparison, Beyond the Lights climbed 14% on Satuday, yet is acknowledging a 40% Sunday drop.)  But even […]

> This weekend looks to be very weak.  The projected total volume of $85 million would be down 29% versus the same weekend last year (when Jackass 3-D opened to a staggering $50 million) and down 18% from the average comparable weekend the last four years.  It’s lazy remake weekend starting Friday, with two of the […]

> Now the only question is when they announce the start of  pre-production on LORAX 2. OPENINGS:  It turned out THE LORAX (Universal) wasn’t frontloaded at all.  Quite the contrary, its 80% Saturday bump put the movie through the roof, a triumph of great marketing over cruddy filmmaking.  Lorax is currently the 3d highest March […]