OPENINGS:  In the US, DADDY’S HOME 2 (Paramount) eked out a victory among the newcomers at $30M, thanks to a 6% family audience bump on Saturday.  That’s still 22% below the opening for the first Daddy’s Home, and it’s likely that spread will increase greatly through the week, since the original comedy opened on […]

  MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (20th) had a surprising amount of marketing muscle behind it, and at least in the short term it seems to be paying off.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, opening day was $10.6M (including $1.6M from Thursday night), and considering that Murder is aimed at an older audience that […]

  OPENINGS:  THOR: RAGNAROK (Marvel/Disney) exceeded high expectations, which is no mean feat for a Marvel blockbuster.  In the US, its weekend was $121M, 42% ahead of both Thor: The Dark World and last November’s Doctor Strange.  (The one slight negative was that its 5% Saturday drop was a bit worse than the 1%/4% dips […]

  Those waiting for Marvel to stumble will have to go on waiting.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, THOR: RAGNAROK (Marvel/Disney) had a $46M opening day (including $14.5M from Thursday night), the highest for any Marvel Universe title released outside the May-July corridor.  Opening day was up 44% from the start of Thor:  The […]

  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 […]

  Rebooting an aged horror franchise can be tough.  Recent attempts to bring back Alien, Scream and Friday the 13th have faltered, and now Saw, rechristened as JIGSAW (Lionsgate), isn’t off to much of a start.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $7.5M, much lower than the $10.7M for Saw 3D, the last […]

  OPENINGS:  BOO 2! A MADEA HALLOWEEN (Lionsgate) took the weekend with $21.7M, down 24% from last year’s first Boo.  That puts it behind all the previous Madea openings except A Madea Christmas, which had the entire holiday corridor for its run.  Last year’s installment had an exceptionally good Weekend 2 hold, down just 40% […]

  It’s a busy but not particularly big weekend at the multiplex.  The weekend’s winner will be BOO 2! A MADEA HALLOWEEN (Lionsgate), which did a fairly good job of holding the audience for last year’s original Boo.  Deadline reports a preliminary $7.5M opening day, down 21% from Boo‘s start.  If that percentage holds, the […]