OPENINGS:  ALIEN: ROMULUS (20th/Disney) became the latest franchise product to hit big this summer, arriving at the high end of expectations with $41.5M.  That was higher than 2017’s Alien: Covenant ($36.2M), although below 2012’s Prometheus ($51.1M).  The film was also solid overseas, with a $66.7M start sparked by $25.7M from China.  Romulus was budgeted […]

  With a marketplace starved of adult comedy after the failure of Bad Santa 2, and the holiday deluge of product not quite here, this weekend is proving to be good timing for the arrival of OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY (DreamWorks/Paramount).  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Office had a $6.7M Friday (including $950K from Thursday night), and depending […]

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give PRISONERS (Warners) an easy win on Friday and almost certainly for the weekend, with a $7.5M opening day that should mean $20-22M by Sunday.  Warners is following the Argo playbook with Prisoners, with acclaimed Telluride and Toronto Film Festival screenings followed by a quick wide release, and so far […]

> With one startling exception and a couple of smaller ones, the holiday crop of movies declined on Saturday and are expected to recover on New Year’s Day. PARAMOUNT:  MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL went down 18% and is expected to rise 33% today.  It should hit $142M by the end of the 4-day holiday […]

> The past week (seven days ending Sunday) came in up 25% versus last year’s comparable week (the first significant increase in five weeks).  Year-to-date box office is now down 7% versus last year.    The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between July 11 and July 17 grossed $331 […]

  THE GREAT GATSBY (Warners) kicked off its run with a strong $3.3M from Thursday night shows.  That’s nowhere near superhero- or teen-vampire-movie levels, but it’s better than the $3M for Sex and the City 2, the last big opening skewed toward an older female audience (with pre-screening parties scheduled for many theaters here as […]

The busy Christmas film season gets going this weekend with the opening of The Hobbit.  Not much else is happening at the box office as the movies from the last two weeks are pretty much dead and the Thanksgiving movies are getting a tad stale.  But the prequel to the uber-nerd extravaganza that is J.R.R. […]

  The holiday movie season is getting off to a very slow start this weekend–and since this is the same time last year when the 2d Hobbit opened to $73.6M, the early December date can’t be blamed for it.  (This year’s Hobbit has opted to open next Wednesday.)  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give Ridley Scott’s […]