Weekend #13 of 2014 is looking like $122 million for the top 12 films, 14% below the typical volume for this weekend the past few years. Opening at around 3,400 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Noah from Paramount should average $11,300 per theater for the weekend […]

  THE MEG (Gravity/Warners) appears to be having the opposite box office experience from what we’ve come to associate with US/China action movies.  In the US, it’s overperforming, perhaps helped by a calendar slot a week after Discovery’s yearly Shark Week:  preliminary numbers at Deadline estimate opening day at $16.5M ($4M from Thursday night), which […]

  OPENINGS:  RIDE ALONG 2 (Universal) is projecting a $39.5M 4-day weekend, 19% below the $48.6M opening of the first Ride Along exactly 2 years ago.  That would put its US trajectory at $100-110M, enough to make it a fine piece of business for all concerned, but any growth would have to come from overseas, […]

  OPENINGS:  JURASSIC WORLD (Legendary/Universal) took its place in the history books with the biggest worldwide opening of all time, its $511.8M ahead of the final Harry Potter‘s $483.2M.  That particular record relies a bit on overseas distribution scheduling, since not every American blockbuster is approved for a China opening the same weekend that it […]

  After two weeks of sloth, Hollywood started rolling out its pre-holiday product.  The weekend’s easy winner will be SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (Sony Animation/Columbia/Sony), which had a $12.6M Friday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, including $3.5M from Thursday night.  That should give it a $35M+ weekend.  Projections after that are tough, because there […]

This weekend is poised to be the third solidly up weekend in a row.  Five films open this weekend, with four boasting positive critical acclaim and two in rave territory.  None looks to be a big commercial hit, but the total business for the openers combined with very good returning box office for Taken 2 […]

Weekend #8 of 2014 is looking like an okay $110 million for the top 12 films, 4% above the average for this weekend the past several years. Two new movies look to open very quietly, while The Lego Movie remains the only real force in theaters currently. Opening at around 2,500 theaters Friday (slightly below the 2,886 average […]

  MINIONS (Illumination/Universal) was expected to enfold the weekend box office in its little yellow fingers, and so it is.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give it a $45M opening day, which appears to be the largest opening in the history of movie animation (the asterisk is because we now consider “Friday” to include Thursday night, […]