OPENINGS:  ANNABELLE COMES HOME (New Line/Warners) had a $20.3M weekend, but it had opened on Wednesday, so its 5-day total was $31.2M.  Even so, its 5 days were lower than the 3-day weekends for Annabelle ($37.1M) and Annabelle: Creation ($35M), and just a bit ahead of the Conjuring spin-off Curse of La Llorona ($26.3M) […]

  OPENINGS:  TOY STORY 4 (Pixar/Disney) opened with $118M in the US, and that’s obviously a huge amount of money and in a different dimension from the flops that Hollywood has weathered over the past several weeks.  Nevertheless, it’s around 25% below general expectations, and considerably less than the June openings for The Incredibles 2 […]

  Note:  The Father’s Day tide is expected to lift virtually all movie boats on Sunday, and the studios have factored that into their weekend estimates.  However, next weekend’s declines may be steeper than usual as a result. OPENINGS:  MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL (Tencent/Columbia/Sony) was the latest big-budget franchise entry to perform dimly, with a […]

  OPENINGS:  THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 (Illumination/Universal) had a better launch than this weekend’s other big arrival, but it was a major box office disappointment in its own right.  The $47.1M weekend was down 55% from the first Pets just 3 years ago, and although Pets 2 will likely hit profit thanks to […]

  OPENINGS:  GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (Legendary/Warners) didn’t have the Saturday bump that Kong: Skull Island enjoyed, instead dropping 17%, which was slightly worse even than the first Godzilla‘s 16%.  The result was a $49M US weekend, and a US total that may only reach $125M.  Although the numbers overseas were bigger, they were […]

  It’s too soon to tell just how GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (Legendary/Warners) will fare based on its $19.7M opening day (including $6.3M from Thursday), per preliminary numbers at Deadline.  The reason is that the two previous installments of what Warners calls its “Monsterverse” have had strikingly divergent trajectories at the US box office.  […]

  OPENINGS:  ALADDIN (Disney) will probably be in the top half-dozen Memorial Day openings when Monday brings it to $105M or so (the 3-day total is $86.1M).  Compared to other Disney live-action reboots of animated hits, though, it had a subpar 5% drop on Saturday (The Jungle Book gained 28% on its 2nd day of […]

  ALADDIN (Disney) marked a rebound from the opening day of Dumbo, with preliminary numbers at Deadline projecting $30.8M on Friday (including $7M from Thursday afternoon/evening), compared to $15.3M for Dumbo.  The Memorial Day holiday will provide an extra boost, so the 3-day weekend should be around $86M, with $106M by Monday.  Aladdin wasn’t cheap, […]