> TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON is reporting (pending actual numbers tomorrow) a 4-day weekend gross of $116.7M, giving it a total of $181.1M since opening Tuesday evening.  That puts it around 10% ahead of the original Transformers and 15% behind Transformers 2.  The original Transformers declined only 47% in its second weekend (the first […]

  OPENINGS:  THE BOURNE LEGACY (Universal) is holding on to its $40M opening by its fingernails, with just $265K to spare.  (We’ll find out tomorrow if that holds up.)   Bourne is an unusual action franchise that historically hasn’t overperformed internationally, and if that’s the case with Legacy as well, the picture is likely looking at […]

  Now that we’ve looked through all the major and mini-major Hollywood studios (Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Lionsgate/Summit) and examined their summers, today we’ll wrap up our summer studio survey with snapshots of some of the more prominent independent studios.  Summer isn’t their key season–the August/September film festivals will […]

  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 […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #23 of 2015 looks like $128 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little worse than it looked yesterday and down significantly the norm for this weekend as the lame summer continues.   Opening at 3,711 theaters Friday, Spy from Fox is now on track for a $30.0 million opening three-day weekend (below […]

> This weekend is looking unusually strong for late September: the top 12 films should gross over $100 million, about 14% above a normal weekend this time of year.  The strong 3D reissue of The Lion King should remain at #1 with close to $20 million and a very family-friendly, small second weekend decline.  Challenging […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #9 of 2013 is another clunker: only $87 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday (down around 40% from the same weekend the last few years).  Jack the Giant Slayer opened reasonably well, but there are no others films doing significant business (weekends over $10 million).  What a mess.   […]

  There was wide speculation that AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (Marvel/Disney) would outgross the opening weekend of the first Avengers, but in the US that may not be in the cards.  Ultron did beat Avengers on Friday, $84.5M vs $80.8M, but that win comes with an asterisk, because both include Friday night showings, and Ultron […]