The 33rd weekend of the year is looking like $133 million for the top 12 films, up a sizable 17% from the average for a normally extremely sleepy weekend.  Opening at around 2,800 2,940 theaters Friday (very close to the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Kick-Ass 2 from Universal should average $8,900 $8,500 per […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studios (films entering wide release in the 2019 calendar year), including worldwide box office for those films during 2020. We will begin the track of the 2020 slate soon.   BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2020 is now […]

  OPENINGS:  MALEFICENT (Disney) is claiming a $70M weekend, and like all round-number estimates, that should be viewed with some skepticism.  But even if it dips slightly in final numbers tomorrow, it’s a fine start.  It’s not, however, the equal of Disney’s other revisionist fairy tales Alice In Wonderland ($116.1M) or Oz: The Great and […]

  The first domestic boxoffice numbers are in for SKYFALL (on top of its spectacular $321M overseas total to date).  On Thursday, the newest Bond had an unusual 1-day preliminary run only in IMAX and other large format theaters with $2.2M, and that was followed by $2.4M in general midnight release last night, for a […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is still +11% above last year and still +12% above the average for this point […]

> Behold Liam Neeson, King of January. OPENINGS:  THE GREY (Open Road) will easily take the weekend, albeit at a lower level than prior Neeson early-year thrillers.  Given that this one features killer wolves and hypothermia rather than gunfights and car chases, that’s not unexpected, and the picture should hit a decent profit.  ONE FOR […]

  THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Warners) appears to be headed for its 3rd (and probably last) weekend in 1st place, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  The Caped Crusader’s Friday is estimated over $10M, which should mean a weekend around $35M.  That would bring its total by Sunday night to over $350M, which would tie […]

Weekend #44 is on pace to almost match the multi-year average for this weekend and exceed the same weekend last year, which was missing an animated family film.  This year Wreck-It Ralph props up the weekend, as Megamind did on this weekend in 2010 and Madagascar 2 did in 2008.  Flight is solid but not […]