The box office effect of the upcoming holidays is already being seen, as studios are estimating extremely low Sunday drops from Saturday based on seasonal patterns.  With one conspicuous exception, everything in town is doing at least moderately well. OPENINGS:  ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) didn’t carry off the weekend crown, and at […]

  OPENINGS:  HALLOWEEN ENDS (Universal, also on Peacock) underperformed badly with $41.3M, about 25% below pre-release expectations, and 17% under the $49.4M start for last year’s Halloween Kills, despite a stronger Thursday night start than Kills ($5.4M vs $4.9M).  The excuse de jour is the Peacock release, which would be dubious in any case considering […]

> Hangover Part II and Kung Fu Panda 2 added to the Worldwide gross list in the top 10, both with much more upside to come. Hangover Part II enters the 2011 Worldwide gross list at #5 (and Kung Fu Panda at #7), both having solid openings in only a few markets.  As both films […]

> In its second week on the international box office chart, Rio has widened its lead at the top, emerging as the worldwide choice among movies in the first third of 2011 (until we see how Fast Five fares).   Rio (Fox) now has over $200 million overseas, with possibly $50 million more to go.  This would […]

Eleven days into the three-week holiday movie season, 2012 is now 9.5% behind the average for the same period over the last several years ($316 million this year versus $349 million on average 2004-2011).  Further, 2012 is 13.7% behind the last time Christmas fell on a Tuesday (2007’s $366 million over this period).   The […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Warner Brothers moved back into first place for the year with the release of Focus, although it really is a virtual tie with Universal. Note: the Scorecard has been updated below, flipping The DUFF and McFarland, USA to their correct studios. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, […]

  Once again, Gone Girl was vanquished for a day by a horror movie, but will almost certainly rebound to take the weekend. OPENINGS:  DRACULA UNTOLD (Legendary/Universal) gets the partnership between Universal and its new co-producer/financier Legendary (which for years was parked at Warners) off to a solid start.  Dracula‘s Friday results were underreported in […]

> Both The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline have preliminary (and somewhat divergent) estimates for Friday and the weekend boxoffice, and it looks like this will be the second consecutive weekend with a down-to-the-wire finish.  Whoever comes out ahead when final numbers are announced, though, it’s already clear that this will be another unexpectedly robust session […]