Weekend #37 of 2015 is looking like $65 million for the top 12 films this weekend, below the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). The Visit from Universal should open with a $16.5 million opening weekend. Mediocre reviews so far: 53% positive at RottenTomatoes. The Visit is on track for around $44 million domestic. Overseas the film could bring in $50 […]

  This week, as the clock ticks toward the start of the summer movie season, we’re taking a studio-by-studio look at each company’s line-up and prospects.  Last time we covered Sony, and today we’ll examine Universal. LAST SUMMER:  Universal’s 2013 summer was anchored by two gigantic sequels:  Fast & Furious 6 ($239M US/$789M worldwide) and […]

  The failure of ALLEGIANT (Summit/Lionsgate) puts its studio in an unusually awkward position.  Even though Lionsgate may be able to put the 3rd Divergent movie on its books as a profit (most of the international rights were pre-sold, providing revenues that can off-set the oncoming US losses), the economics are going to get much […]

  There were no new wide releases on this pre-holiday, pre-Last Jedi weekend, so all the action was in holdovers and limited releases.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, COCO (Pixar/Disney) easily retained its crown with a $6.3M Friday.  That was down 67% from last week’s holiday Friday, better than the drops for Moana (70%) […]

  OPENINGS:  By horror movie standards, INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY (Blumhouse/Universal) didn’t collapse on Saturday (down 13%), and that propelled it to a very solid $29.3M weekend, which among horror product in that first-weekend-in-January slot puts it behind only The Devil Inside‘s $33.7M (by way of comparison, that one fell 30% on its Saturday).  Last […]

  OPENINGS:  INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR (Screen Gems/Sony) reaffirmed the strength of the low-budget horror genre with a $32.7M start, better than the $29.6M launch of 2018’s The Last Key (which didn’t feature the full original cast).  Red Door should reach $65M+ in the US, guaranteeing profitability on a reported $16M production budget and relatively […]

  OPENINGS:  Hiyao Miyazaki’s THE BOY AND THE HERON (GKids) exceeded expectations and set a high-water mark for its filmmaker and for non-franchise Japanese animation with a $12.8M launch.  The film will lose its Imax screens next week and faces challenges from other family-oriented films, but if word of mouth is strong and it can […]

  OPENINGS:  ABOMINABLE (Pearl/DreamWorks/Universal) seized a weekend on the calendar that had a dearth of new children’s movies (and with 2 weeks until The Addams Family opens), and pushed it to a fair $20.9M opening.  However, with roughly $150M in costs, it will need international help to reach profit, and since weekend results were at […]