Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #20 of 2013 looks like $147 million for the top 12 films, somewhat above the same weekend last year but slightly below the four-year average for the weekend.  Star Trek Into Darkness had a decent Saturday but is still performing well below our expectations. Opening at 3,762 theaters […]

  MAN OF STEEL (Warners) had the opening it was looking for, with preliminary numbers at Deadline giving it $46M on Friday.  That includes $9M from Friday midnight shows, but not an additional $12M from Wal-Mart tie-in screenings at 7PM Thursday night.  Assuming the $46M number holds up, it should mean a $115-120M weekend ($132M […]

  OPENINGS:  DESPICABLE ME 2 (Universal) had an even better weekend overseas than it did in the US, with $88.8M (in 45 markets, with plenty more major ones to come) vs $82.5M.  (Of course, in the US it also had the benefit of a holiday week, giving it a huge $142.1M here so far.)  The […]

  OPENINGS:  While not an outright flop like The Lone Ranger, Pacific Rim, RIPD, et. al (particularly since it cost less to produce than any of those), THE WOLVERINE (20th) is underperforming in a big way.  Its estimated $21M Thursday night/Friday is the lowest start for any X-Men branded movie since the original 13 years […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal and Warner Brothers again flipped positions in the year to date worldwide box office chart.  Universal didn’t have much this week (the lame domestic opening of Kick-Ass 2 and some continued overseas business from Despicable Me 2), but it was certainly more than Warner Brothers, which has grown very quiet here […]

Updated international box office chart:

  Amid its very public internal tumult today, Deadline managed to post some preliminary box office numbers, and if they hold up, BAD GRANDPA (Paramount) will take over first place for the weekend.  Its reported $11.5M Friday (including $1.4M from Thursday night) is only about half of the opening day for the last Jackass (which […]

  With shows that began at 8PM last night, THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) earned $25.3M, and as is often the case with initial numbers, they can be read in several ways.  On the one hand, the result is considerably higher than the $19.7M Thursday night gross for the first Hunger Games–but that was […]