OPENINGS:  HUNTER KILLER (Millenium/Summit Premiere/Lionsgate) had a weak $6.7M start, and probably won’t reach $20M in the US, not even enough to pay for the costs of its US release, and a low for a Gerard Butler action movie.  Its international campaign has a sluggish $4M so far, with $3.2M this weekend in 16 […]

>The tenth weekend of the year should generate about $122 million for the top 12 films, a slightly better than normal weekend for the second weekend in March — up 4% from last year’s comparable weekend and up 10% from the four-year average for this weekend.  John Carter will be the top opener, but it […]

  OPENINGS:  DARK WATERS (Focus/Universal) expanded into wide release at 2012 theatres, and emerged with a mild $4.1M.  (By comparison, Focus’s previous release Harriet opened at 2059 with an $11.7M weekend.)  Its lack of awards traction thus far suggests that it’s going to have a hard time building any momentum for a run through the […]

Weekend #20 of 2015 is looking like $157 million for the top 12 films this weekend, very close to the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 3,400 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Pitch Perfect 2 from Universal should average a very good $15,600 per theater for the three-day weekend […]

  OPENINGS:  History seems to be repeating itself for filmmaker Kelly Fremon Craig, whose extremely well-reviewed ARE YOU THERE GOD?  IT’S ME, MARGARET (Lionsgate) opened with a soft $6.8M (and that studio estimate assumes an unusually strong Sunday).  That’s very similar to Craig’s also critically-praised 2016 The Edge of Seventeen, which had a $4.9M opening […]

  OPENINGS:  INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (Paramount/Lucasfilm/Disney) barely scraped the bottom of weekend expectations with $60M, and that studio estimate assumes an very strong Sunday.  The extremely expensive tentpole–$400M+ in production and worldwide marketing costs–combined an elderly franchise built around an 80-year old star with mediocre reviews following an ill-advised Cannes premiere, […]

  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 […]

  OPENINGS:  THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (DreamWorks/Reliance/Universal) didn’t have much of a Saturday bump, rising just 2% (that compares to 15% for the 2d day of Gone Girl), suggesting that word of mouth is less than stellar.  The result was a $24.7M weekend that was lower than originally anticipated, and early international results of […]