HAPPY DEATH DAY (Blumhouse/Universal) continued a remarkable year for Blumhouse, following the giant successes of Split and Get Out.  Deadline has its Friday at a preliminary $11.3M (including $1M from Thursday night), and its 68% Rotten Tomatoes score is comparable to Split‘s 74%.  That film had a 2.7x weekend multiple, and even if Happy […]

  OPENINGS:  Coming into this weekend, the discussion about BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was mostly about whether with its critical raves it could exceed expectations by 20% or so and become October’s #1 opening.  But things went in the other direction, and its current $31.5M estimate doesn’t even put it in the month’s Top 20.  […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is still down -2% from last year and now +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.750 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed […]

  BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was a high-risk bet, with roughly $300M in production and worldwide marketing wagered on an extremely serious 164-minute sequel to a 35-year old film that only became legendary after it was itself a sizable flop in theatres.  Reportedly, the bulk of that investment rested with Alcon, while Sony (international) and […]

  OPENINGS:  We won’t really know the order of the weekend’s closely-bunched Top 3 movies until final numbers are released tomorrow, but since the default position of any studio with a new opening is to claim victory, the fact that AMERICAN MADE (Cross Creek/Universal) is currently in 2nd place with $17M can’t be a good […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now down -2% from last year and now +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.598 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed […]

  There’s going to be a crowd at the top of the box office this weekend, but there’s not much good news in it for anyone.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, AMERICAN MADE (Cross Creek/Universal) took Friday with $6M (almost $1M of it from Thursday night), which should give it a $15-16M weekend.  However, […]

  OPENINGS: KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (MARV/20th) took the weekend, but at $39M it was below Fox’s minimal target number of $40M.  Since sequels burn out faster than initial films in a series, Golden Circle will probably end up around $100-120M in the US, compared to $128M for The Secret Service, and that’s on higher […]