Based on Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #11 of 2013 is now looking strictly mediocre.  Yesterday it appeared that the weekend would be up slightly from the same weekend in past years, but now it is down slightly from previous years.  Oz remains the only real draw at the box office (now headed for over $250 million […]

The 2014 holiday box office continues to be better than average but now falling behind last year’s pace. The top 10 films on Monday December 29, 2014 totaled $34.9 million, somewhat below the average $39.8 million for the days since 2002 when December 29 landed on a weekday.  The last time December 29 fell on […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is still +3% above last year and still +3% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.259 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $24.3 billion worldwide when […]

  Hollywood’s underwhelming summer box office continues this weekend, with preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere indicating that all three of the newcomers are likely to perform below expectations. The bleakest news of the weekend, though, may be about its #1 ticket seller.  Despite some of the year’s best reviews, and seemingly everything needed for […]

> Box office momentum continues this weekend with one strong new entry and several solid holdovers.  We expect another weekend tally above the same weekend in 2010. Opening at about 3,400 theaters, X-Men: First Class should average a very strong $20,800 per theater (for $71 million this weekend).  Critical reviews for this prequel have been […]

  Studio honesty is rare enough to be worth noting when it appears:  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) could easily have juiced its Sunday estimate to claim the #2 second weekend of all time today, but instead it was content with being #4, at $74.5M  just $1.1M behind Avatar and $700K behind The Dark […]

  OPENINGS:  IF I STAY (Warners/MGM) was the best of a weak trio, opening with $16.4M and with an 18% drop on Saturday that indicated moderate front-loading.  It should reach a fair $40-50M US total, which could get it to breakeven if not profit. WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL (Affirm/TriStar/Sony), with a $9M weekend, was […]

  OPENINGS:  LES MISERABLES (Universal) fell behind DJANGO UNCHAINED (Weinstein/Sony) for the first time on Friday, because Les Miz was up only 3% from Thursday, while Django rose more impressively by 17%.  Both should be around $85M by New Year’s Day.  Conventional wisdom has it that Les Miz will benefit more from Oscar season than Django, […]