OPENINGS:  Despite a bounty of new titles, nothing touched the holdover at the top of the weekend box office.  The newcomer with the closest claim to “success” in the US was THE POPE’S EXORCIST (Screen Gems/Sony), with $9.2M.  The horror movie also reported $27.4M in overseas release, which would put it on a road […]

  OPENINGS:  The traditional horror movie start of the new year was provided by NIGHT SWIM (Blumhouse-Atomic Planet/Universal), although at $12M it was the lowest such arrival since The Grudge started with $11.4M in 2020.  The final number for that one was $21.2M, and Night Swim probably won’t be much higher.  The international launch was […]

  OPENINGS:  SMILE 2 (Paramount) opened on par with its predecessor, at $23M compared to $22.6M.  A small dip had been projected, so that was slightly above expectations.  The sequel, unlike the first Smile, will face major competition in its 2nd weekend, so it remains to be seen whether it can have that film’s stellar […]

>The fifth weekend of the year should generate about $84 million for the top 12 films — up 15% from last year’s comparable weekend but down a similar percentage from a “normal” weekend this time of year.  Three new films open this weekend to positive reviews, but none of the three should gross more than […]

> Two new comedies (one adult and one family-oriented) duke it out this weekend, while Transformers: Dark of the Moon will remain on top.  The weekend as a whole should be down versus last year.   Opening at around 2,900 theaters, Horrible Bosses should average a solid $9,200 per theater (for $26.5 million for Friday-Sunday).  […]

This weekend will be respectable — the top 12 films should total around $93 million, very typical for this weekend most years, although down 13% from last year when Moneyball and Dolphin Tale both opened.  Four films from very different genres open this weekend, none of which should break out significantly.  Also, The Master expands […]

Iron Man 3 will push the 18th weekend of the year to well over $210 million for the top 12 films, fully 19% better than the average for the comparable weekends recently but still 15% below the same weekend last year, when The Avengers exploded. Opening at over 4,000 theaters Friday (a very high theater […]

The 40th weekend of the year is looking like a good $107 million for the top 12 films, way down from this weekend last year (boosted by Taken 2) but up 9% from the multi-year average for this weekend. Opening at over 3,450 theaters Friday (way above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the […]