OPENINGS:  After an October built on blockbusters that had been held off the market for more than a year, Thanksgiving weekend served as a reminder (to all except those paid to tout box office totals) that the theatrical release business continues to be far from recovered in the lingering Covid world.  Overall business was […]

  OPENINGS:  Nothing improved for the weekend’s newcomers after Friday’s dim numbers.  THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (QED/Summit/Lionsgate) led with a soft $10.8M, and whether or not Lionsgate is being entirely frank when it claims to have little exposure, someone is going to be feeling a tug on their wallet.  The results overseas, not unexpectedly, were […]

>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, […]

Weekend #31 of 2014 is looking like $150 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 16%from the norm for this weekend and the first up weekend since June 13-15.   Opening at around 3,800 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Guardians of the Galaxy from Disney and […]

Weekend #3 of 2016 is looking like a pretty normal $143 million for the top 12 films this weekend (see comparisons below). Ride Along 2 from Universal should open with $35.0 million Friday-Sunday and about $43 million Friday-Monday. The film is on track for around $105 million domestic in its run. Overseas the film could bring in $25 million, giving it a […]

  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 […]

>The 12th weekend of the year should be a whopper: about $176 million for the top 12 films.  How big is that for the fourth weekend in March?  Enormous, unprecedented: up 62% from last year’s comparable weekend and up 55% from the four-year average for this weekend.  Of course, this weekend is all about The […]

  OPENINGS:  THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS (Reliance/Universal) was built for weekend matinees, and a 47% Saturday bump carried it to a $26.9M weekend.  Among recent fall supernatural family movies, that puts it $3.2M above Goosebumps, and $2.2M below Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, suggesting a US landing place around $85M.  […]