With a franchise like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney), profitability isn’t at issue.  Guardians 2 carries around $350M in worldwide production/marketing costs, and it will be in hailing distance of financial success by Sunday.  The question is how the given installment ranks in terms of similar mega-competition and expectations.  Preliminary numbers at […]

  The major studios are barely participating in late August distribution, and it was clear the box office would be dreadful this weekend even before calculating the effects of Hurricane Harvey and the expected massive pay-per-view gate for Saturday’s Mayweather vs. McGregor bout.  (Those events are likely to bring down weekend multiples even lower than […]

  OPENINGS:  OVERBOARD (MGM/Pantelion/Lionsgate) opened in 45% more theatres than Eugenio Derbez’s How To Be A Latin Lover, and had a weekend that was 20% higher at $14.8M.  That’s not the cross-cultural breakout hit that the studio and Derbez had in mind, although an eventual $40M in the US will likely provide a modest profit […]

  OPENINGS:  It’s possible to make money on Super Bowl weekend, as hits like Dear John ($30.5M), Taken ($24.7M) and Chronicle ($22M) have shown.  But MISS BALA (Columbia/Sony) didn’t have what it takes, with a sluggish $6.7M start.  The 5% Saturday bump suggests that word of mouth isn’t bad, but next weekend it will have […]

  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 […]

  OPENINGS:  THE INVISIBLE MAN (Blumhouse/Universal) had a 12% Saturday bump, evidence of extremely strong word of mouth in the horror genre (among recent uncommonly leggy horror releases, Get Out rose 17% on its 2nd day of release, and A Quiet Place was up 1%).  That brought it to a strong $29M weekend, and with […]

  OPENINGS:  There’s some inconsistency in the way the weekend numbers for JUJUTSU KEISEN 0 (Crunchyroll) are being reported, with some outlets using the $17.7M figure that includes pre-Friday shows, and others using the $14.8M that begins the count on Friday itself.  For better or worse, the convention these days is to roll what are […]

  OPENINGS:  VIOLENT NIGHT (Universal) slightly overperformed with $13.3M in the US, and with its $20M production budget, it may be headed for breakeven or perhaps moderate profit.  However, worldwide marketing costs are likely to add another $40M+ to that tally, and the thriller had much less appeal overseas, with $7.1M in 72 territories. The […]