OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER 3 (Escape Artists/Columbia/Sony) performed both within expectations and at around the same level as its predecessors, with $34.5M for the 3-day weekend compared to $36M for Equalizer 2 and $34M for the first in the franchise.  (The Monday holiday is projected to bring the total to $42M.)  Also like the previous […]

  The enduring respect and admiration for Get Out, and its own enthusiastic reviews, are pushing Jordan Peele’s US (Blumhouse/Perfect World/Universal) way past expectations.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, opening day was $28.6M (including $7.4M from Thursday night), which means that in one day, Us has already earned more than 85% of Get Out‘s […]

  OPENINGS:  INSIDE OUT 2 (Pixar/Disney) overdelivered massively compared to expectations with $155M in the US, a remarkable $65M higher than the start for 2015’s original Inside Out, and depending whether you count the “live-action” CG remake of The Lion King ($191.8M) as animated, either the #2 or #3 US opening for an animated feature […]

  Despite some of the best reviews of the year for any movie, big studio or indie, WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (TSG/20th) is off to a merely OK start.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it had a $21.1M opening day (including $5M from Thursday night), putting it 24% behind the $27.6M […]

  After last weekend’s misfired The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, THE GRINCH (Illumination/Universal) is kicking off the family holiday movie season in a bigger way.  Early numbers at Deadline have opening day at $18.3M (including $2.2M from Thursday night), which should mean a $64M weekend, plus more on Monday, since many schools are closed […]

  OPENINGS:  JIGSAW (Lionsgate) had a better Saturday hold than Saw VI (down 21% instead of 32%), and that saved it from having the lowest opening weekend of the franchise.  However, its $16.3M start is still far below the $24.2M for the last installment Saw 3D, which killed off the series for 7 years.  Jigsaw […]

Weekend #38 of 2014 is looking like $104 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 20% from the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 3,500 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Maze Runner from 20th Century Fox should average a solid $9,800 per theater […]

  OPENINGS:  HAPPY DEATH DAY (Blumhouse/Universal) opened so well at $26.5M that inevitably, despite the fact that it appears to tell a completely closed-end story, talk of a franchise has started.  You can’t blame them:  Death Day isn’t quite at the blockbuster level of Blumhouse’s Split ($40M) or Get Out ($33.4M), but it’s starting better […]