Pixar is still Pixar, but the Disney Animation division of the studio (also headed by John Lasseter) is proving that it’s a formidable creator of animated features as well, following Frozen with the smashingly imaginative ZOOTOPIA (Disney).  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, Zootopia had a $18M Friday (including $1.7M from Thursday night), and […]

Weekend #10 of 2016 is looking like $146 million for the top 12 films this weekend, above the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND March 4-6, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Zootopia Dis PG 100% 67.0 225 375 600 London Has […]

  OPENINGS:  The really bad news for GODS OF EGYPT (Summit/Lionsgate) wasn’t the $14M US opening, although that was certainly pathetic enough.  No, the really bad news was that in 68 overseas territories covering most of the world (although not yet China, which opens in 2 weeks, nor France, Germany or the UK), it managed […]

Weekend #9 of 2016 is looking like $98 million for the top 12 films this weekend, somewhat below the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND February 26-28, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Gods of Egypt LG PG13 n/a 11.5 30 175 […]

  OPENINGS:  RISEN (Affirm/Columbia/Sony) topped the weekend’s arrivals with an $11.8M start that was above the $11.4M for War Room and the $9.2M for God’s Not Dead, although it was well below Heaven Is For Real‘s $22.5M.  The Christian genre has tremendous multiples–both God’s and War Room ended up at 6x their opening weekends–and Risen […]

  None of the weekend’s openings were expected to come near last week’s blockbuster opening, and none will.  The target Christian audience is turning out for RISEN (Affirm/Columbia/Sony), with preliminary numbers at Deadline putting it at $4.25M for Friday.  Given its demographics, Risen should hold well through the weekend, particularly on Sunday, which could give […]

Weekend #8 of 2016 is looking like $133 million for the top 12 films this weekend, above the norms for this normally sleepy weekend (see comparisons below). NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND February 19-21, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Risen Sony PG13 n/a 9.5 23 10 […]

  A Valentine’s Day in the middle of Presidents Day weekend allowed for strong Sunday studio estimates–in one case, suspiciously so. OPENINGS:  A couple of notable sidelights to the gargantuan success of DEADPOOL (Marvel/20th), which has the #17 opening of all time at $135.1M (probably $155M with the Monday holiday), is now the highest-opening R-rated […]