OPENINGS:  Considering that DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW AGE (Focus/Universal) is something like a fresh MCU chapter for the older female audience, the fact that the sequel opened at $16M despite solid reviews–a painful 48% drop from the first theatrical entry in the franchise just 3 years ago–is a sobering sign that this demo just […]

  The gamble of CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Color Force/SK Global/Warners) is paying off with solid returns.  The film opened on Wednesday and earned $8.8M in its first two days, and preliminary numbers at Deadline have its Friday at $7M.  That should give it a $21M 3-day weekend and around $30M since opening day.  A $70M […]

The 9th weekend of 2013 looks like a problem: $96 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 37% from the same weekend last year.  One movie should open decently, while all the holdovers are wilting.  The last six weeks are down 21% from the same period last year and down 20% from the average […]

  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:  The box office may not have hit bottom yet (see “Next Weekend” below), but it’s getting close, with the horror movie THE INVITATION (Screen Gems/Sony) topping the weekend at a painful $7M.  Things were no better overseas, where the film opened at $1.6M in 19 markets.  Despite these numbers, The Invitation may still […]

Weekend #27 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND July 1-3, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Four Day Fri-Sun Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Purge: Election Year Uni R 67% 23.0 28.5 65 45 110 The BFG Dis PG 71% […]

  OPENINGS:  The $21.6M start for THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (Summit/Lionsgate) was on target for the B-movie, which had a modest 2% Saturday dip.  It also earned $6.6M in early international release.  While it does nothing much to burnish Ryan Reynolds post-Deadpool, Hitman is on track for a modest profit on $90M or so in production/worldwide […]

  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, […]