OPENINGS:  Early January is a potent slot for horror movies, and M3GAN (Blumhouse/Universal) kicked off the year with a strong $30.2M, essentially the same as last year’s $30M for the rebooted Scream, despite all the franchise value of the latter (Scream also had the advantage of opening over the month’s holiday weekend).  M3gan has […]

  OPENINGS:  PAW PATROL:  THE MIGHTY MOVIE (Nickelodeon/Paramount) launched with $23M, above expectations and an impressive rise over the $13.1M start for the 2021 installment of the franchise.  It also has $23.1M overseas from 45 markets (the 2021 film earned 72% of its global total internationally).  This series is produced at relatively low cost by […]

  OPENINGS:  The box office for TWISTERS (Warners/Universal) was paradoxical.  In the US, the movie strongly outperformed expectations with $80.5M.  However, it showed much less appeal overseas, with $27.1M in 76 territories this weekend ($42.7M to date including some revenue from markets that opened last week).  Twisters is also about to lose virtually all its […]

>Weekend #16 of 2012 looks like it will be about $105 million for the top 12 films, down 14% from last year’s comparable weekend (led by Rio’s second weekend) but up 6% from the four-year average for this weekend.  The Hunger Games should finally fall out of first place, dropping about 38% this weekend to […]

>Now we slog through September.  The top 12 films usually gross $73 million the weekend after Labor Day, and the September weekends afterward average around $85 million.  By October, however, the typical weekend perks up to over $100 million.  Contagion should takeover the #1 spot this weekend, with Warrior fighting The Help for #2 and […]

Weekend #25 of 2012 looks like another disappointment: a soft $150 million for the top 12 films, down 12% from last year’s comparable weekend and down 14% from the four-year average for the weekend.  Pixar’s Brave should open well, but the other two openers will struggle to find any audience and there certainly won’t be […]

The 7th weekend of 2013 looks like it will be down from prior years but not at the excessive rates we have seen the past few weekends.  We expect $121 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 6% to 15% below the normal pace for this weekend.   Opening in 3,552 theaters Thursday, A Good […]

The 32nd weekend of the year is looking like $165 million for the top 12 films, a very good result for the second week of August.  Four movies aimed at very different audiences should open reasonably well, giving the box office a short term boost.  But most of the four openers should disappear quickly, and […]