OPENINGS:  The SAUSAGE PARTY (Annapurna/Columbia/Sony) audience was somewhat frontloaded, with a 16% Saturday decline, but the weekend total of $33.6M was still outstanding, the best starring debut for Seth Rogen since the original Neighbors, and higher than the $33M 5-day opening for This Is The End (which opened on a Wednesday).  There’s certainly nothing […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is still +3% above last year and now +5% above the average for this point the past four years ($6.592 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $17.3 billion worldwide when we […]

  After a summer of fizzled franchise movies, audiences were–pardon the expression–hungry for something new, and the unquestionably unique, hard-R existential talking food cartoon SAUSAGE PARTY (Annapurna/Columbia/Sony) is satisfying that appetite.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Sausage is going to win Friday with $13.3M ($3.3M from Thursday night shows), although it’s likely to be […]

Weekend #33 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND August 12-14, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Sausage Party Sony R 90% 29.5 116 90 206 Pete’s Dragon Dis PG 84% 27.0 110 160 270 Florence […]

  OPENINGS:  The answer to the question of whether the Day 2 drop for SUICIDE SQUAD (RatPac/DC/Warners) would be as bad as the one for Batman v Superman turned out to be no–it was worse.  Suicide plunged 41% on Saturday, compared to BvS‘s 38%.  That’s the kind of drop usually associated with the hugely-frontloaded Twilight series, […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +3% above last year and now +4% above the average for this point the past four years ($6.388 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $16.7 billion worldwide when […]

  SUICIDE SQUAD (RatPac/DC/Warners) was expected to explode past all August box office records, and so far, that’s what it’s doing.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, opening day was as high as $65M (including $20.5M from Thursday night), obliterating the $37.8M for Guardians of the Galaxy, and the weekend will gallop beyond Guardians‘s $94.3M, […]

Weekend #32 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND August 5-7, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Suicide Squad WB PG13 32% 130.5 325 475 800 Nine Lives Europa PG n/a 7.5 20 25 45 Note: […]