>Very lame weekend ahead, as is normal for the first weekend in December.  Coming off the last two weekends, which are usually the #1 and #15 weekends of the year in terms of total dollar volume, this weekend is usually ranked 50th overall.  After the extravaganza of movie-going leading up to and through Thanksgiving weekend, […]

Updated throughout: theater counts and critical sentiment for films opening this weekend. The 12th weekend of 2013 looks like it will be way off last year’s pace set by the opening of The Hunger Games, but the weekend will be closer to a more normal year.  The top 12 films Friday-Sunday should total $126 million, […]

  OPENINGS:  With an assortment of excuses (the World Series!  a video game release!  Halloween!  birthday parties?!?), VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (Marvel/Columbia/Sony) tottered to $51M in the US, down 43% from 2021’s Let There Be Carnage.  At this point it seems to be heading for $125M domestically, down from $213.6M.  Things are much stronger overseas, […]

  OPENINGS:  JASON BOURNE (Perfect World/Universal) is claiming a $60M US start, although as is par for the course, that number includes an aggressive Sunday estimate and could come down a bit on Monday.  In any case, it will be the #2 opening for the franchise, behind the $69.3M for 2007’s Bourne Ultimatum.  That film […]

Weekend #44 of 2015 is looking like a very weak $69 million for the top 12 films this weekend, well below the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below) as Halloween and all its distractions lands on a Saturday and derails movie attendance. Our Brand Is Crisis from Warner Brothers should open with a $6.5 million weekend. The film is on track […]

  It’s not much of a surprise at this point that GRAVITY (Warners) continues to run rings around its competition.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the blockbuster will easily win its third consecutive weekend, with $8.8M on Friday, down only 30% from last Friday.  That should mean a $30M weekend, and close to $170M […]

  PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING (Legendary/Universal) was the right film at the right time this weekend, and although the preliminary numbers at Deadline have its opening day at $10.1M ($2.4M of it from Thursday night), just slightly ahead of the $9M for last Friday’s Tomb Raider, that should be enough to bring it to $26M for […]

  OPENINGS:  PAN (RatPac-Dune/Warners) now owns a dubious place in box office history, as one of Hollywood’s biggest flops ever.  On a production/worldwide marketing cost that will exceed $300M, its $15.5M US opening makes John Carter ($30.2M), Battleship ($25.5M), The Lone Ranger ($29.2M), and this year’s Tomorrowland ($33M), Fantastic Four ($25.7M) and even Jupiter Ascending ($18.4M) […]