The Saturday boxoffice news was better for some titles than others.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, TAKEN 2 (20th) held about even on Saturday, which is reasonable for an action-movie sequel.  Recent comparisons:  The Bourne Legacy had a 4% bump on its 2d day of release, while The Expendables 2 dropped 3%.  If […]

  We won’t have confirmed Saturday numbers for several more hours (or final figures until Monday), but based on preliminary grosses at Deadline, DIVERGENT (Summit/Lionsgate) held surprisingly well on its second day of release, down just 14% to $19.7M.  That would be far better than the Day 2 drop for the original Twilight (down 41%), […]

Weekend #9 of 2015 is looking like $93 million for the top 12 films this weekend, significantly below the normal volume for this weekend (see track below). Opening at around 3,200 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Focus from Warner Brothers should average $6,800 per theater for […]

  OPENINGS:  DOCTOR STRANGE (Marvel/Disney) did what a Marvel movie is supposed to do.  In the US, its $85M debut was higher than the starts of Captain America and Thor (both $65-66M), and just a hair away from the November opening of Thor 2 ($85.7M), it not quite in a league with the $94.3M for […]

  “It’s the weather!” studios cry when they don’t have anything e;se to say, so that’s the spin being heard throughout the land upon Wednesday’s soft opening of ROBOCOP (Sony/MGM).  The reboot managed only $2.8M at 3372 theatres, not a sign of great interest.  It’s true that there were storms in much of the country, […]

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have the record pace continuing for both THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) and FROZEN (Disney). Catching Fire had no trouble with the all-time record for the day after Thanksgiving, doubling its holiday number to $31M on Friday.  This wasn’t just far better than the previous post-Thanksgiving Friday ($22.6M for […]

  How much more humiliating can things get for Warners?  On Friday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE BOSS (Universal), which isn’t even a high-performing Melissa McCarthy vehicle, beat up both the studio’s superheroes with about $7.5M.  The Boss will likely have trouble sustaining itself over the weekend, but at about $20M+, it will […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #49 is on pace to fall below the  multi-year average for this weekend by 9% — ending a solid four-week winning streak at the box office.  One movie dared to open on one of the weakest weekends of the year (usually ranked #49 out of 52 weeks in terms of […]