The weekend before Christmas offers four wide releases and another fairly-wide release.  What a collection of underperformers.  The weekend should total a very uninspired $112 million for the top 12 films.  The 51st weekend of the year averages $172 million, and the last time this weekend started on December 21 (2007), the top 12 films […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LOST CITY (Paramount) opened at the high end of expectations at $31M, a particularly solid result these days for a movie that skews both female and older (the latter crowd evident in the 2% Friday-to-Saturday rise).  Lost City faces little challenge in its target demo for the next month, so it could […]

  OPENINGS:  SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO (Black Label/Columbia/Sony) had a modest $19M start, which was better than the first Sicario‘s $12.1M (in October, after 2 weeks of limited release), but perhaps not by enough to justify the pricetag of opening in the crowded summer marketplace.  (Note that the risk here is Black Label’s, since […]

  OPENINGS:  None of the weekend’s wide arrivals found much of an audience.  BLINK TWICE (MGM/Amazon) led the weak group with $7.3M, and given its relatively low $20M+ production costs, it might hit breakeven, depending on how much the studio spent on marketing.  It was equally slow overseas with $6.7M in 73 markets. The Christian […]

Weekend #32 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND August 5-7, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Suicide Squad WB PG13 32% 130.5 325 475 800 Nine Lives Europa PG n/a 7.5 20 25 45 Note: […]

  HOLDOVERS:  On a weekend without new wide releases, COCO (Pixar/Disney) had no trouble holding its crown with $26.1M.  Its 49% drop from Thanksgiving weekend was better than other Disney animations in that slot (50% for Moana, 56% for Tangled, 53% for Frozen), and it should be on track for $225M+ in the US.  Coco […]

  OPENINGS:  HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 (Columbia/Sony) has set a new September record with a $47.5M opening (beating the first Hotel‘s $42.5M), and it barely missed becoming Adam Sandler’s biggest opening ever (The Longest Yard currently has a tiny lead at $47.6M, and kudos to Sony for not claiming the record and changing its mind tomorrow […]

  The phenomenon of It having had its day, weekend box office is starting to look more familiar, which is to say subdued.  KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (MARV/20th) will take the weekend, but hardly in impressive fashion.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $15.7M, which includes $3.4M from Thursday night.  2 years ago, […]