STUDIO SCORECARD. The studio rankings for worldwide box office remain the same this week, with Sony, Universal and 20th Century Fox having the most productive weeks.  Sony benefited from the domestic and especially overseas revenue from The Smurfs 2, while Universal was helped by the release of 2 Guns and the continued overseas grosses for Despicable Me 2.  Even […]

  The young, fanatically committed audience for ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (Sony) is the very definition of probable frontloading, so it’s no surprise that the concert doc debuted with a strong $2.7M last night at 7PM, the best Thursday night result since The Conjuring a month ago.  That’s almost as much as the full […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #43 of 2013 now looks like $95 million for the top 12 films, a shade under yesterday’s estimate but still up 11% to 17% from the same weekend in recent years. Opening at 3,336 theaters Friday, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa from Paramount grossed $12.6 million Friday and $11.5 million Saturday, […]

  OPENINGS:  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) came up from initial Friday estimates to $70.5M, the 7th highest single day box office in US history (behind the final Harry Potter, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, and 3 Twilights) and $3.2M ahead of the opening day for The Hunger Games.  If Catching Fire held as […]

  In shows that started at 9PM last night, Will Ferrell and his ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) crew pulled in $2.3M.  That’s ahead of the $2.2M earned by This Is the End and $1.7M for We’re the Millers, two recent midweek hit comedies that had the benefit of summer openings.  As a sequel […]

  OPENINGS:  PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount) was an experiment in several ways–the first installment of the franchise to be a spin-off and not a direct sequel, the first released out of the Halloween season, and one of Hollywood’s first tries at producing and marketing a movie primarily to the Latino audience.  All of […]

International box office for 2013 releases through February 2, 2014.  Frozen has pushed past Hunger Games: Catching Fire, after passing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in the yearly worldwide rankings last week.  The Wolf of Wall Street (now #33 for the year) is putting some distance between it and American Hustle (still #41 worldwide).  While American Hustle is winning domestically, Wolf is dominating […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #9 of 2014 looks like $110 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, somewhat better than we forecast Wednesday ($100 million) but 18% below the average for this weekend. Opening at 3,090 theaters Friday, Non-Stop from Universal grossed $10.1 million Friday and $12.4 million Saturday, keeping the film on track for […]