OPENINGS:  Considering that DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW AGE (Focus/Universal) is something like a fresh MCU chapter for the older female audience, the fact that the sequel opened at $16M despite solid reviews–a painful 48% drop from the first theatrical entry in the franchise just 3 years ago–is a sobering sign that this demo just […]

  In the bygone movie palace days Quentin Tarantino worships, exclusive “roadshow” engagements of major Hollywood releases sometimes ran for months before the films spread nationwide.  The super-hyped 70mm release of his THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Weinstein) was originally scheduled for a 2-week run, but that was swiftly cut down by half, and then to 6 […]

  A weak slate of newcomers is almost always good news for the holdovers in the market, and that will be the case this holiday weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (Warners Animation) declined a mild 45% from last week’s opening day to $8M, and should take in at least […]

The 33rd weekend of the year is looking like $133 million for the top 12 films, up a sizable 17% from the average for a normally extremely sleepy weekend.  Opening at around 2,800 2,940 theaters Friday (very close to the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Kick-Ass 2 from Universal should average $8,900 $8,500 per […]

The 39th weekend of the year is looking like a good $114 million for the top 12 films, up 22% from the $94 million multi-year average for this weekend. Opening at over 3,800 theaters Friday (way above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 from Sony should average […]

Weekend #5 of 2015 is looking like $104 million for the top 12 films this weekend, actually well above the normal volume for this weekend ($77 million), which is hobbled by the Super Bowl and its massive television audience.  American Sniper on Friday and Saturday should salvage the weekend somewhat, but there is very little […]

Another lifeless weekend is in store this weekend, as the audience prepares for the holidays and puts of moviegoing until the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when there are seven weekend-volume days in a row.  Until then, we have a weekend which will add up to less than $80 million for the top dozen […]

  OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER 3 (Escape Artists/Columbia/Sony) performed both within expectations and at around the same level as its predecessors, with $34.5M for the 3-day weekend compared to $36M for Equalizer 2 and $34M for the first in the franchise.  (The Monday holiday is projected to bring the total to $42M.)  Also like the previous […]