OPENINGS:  WINCHESTER (CBS/Lionsgate) didn’t benefit from having the weekend to itself, with a $9.3M opening that was undistinguished even by the standards of low-budget horror Super Bowl Weekend arrivals.  (The Messengers: $14.7M, Rings:  $13M, Darkness Falls:  $12M, The Uninvited: $10.3M, to name a few.)  It might reach $20M or so in the US, which […]

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 […]

Weekend #51 of 2015 is looking like an amazing $281 million for the top 12 films this weekend, reminiscent of another historic weekend six years ago (see comparisons below). Star Wars: The Force Awakens from Disney should open with $225 million Friday-Sunday. The film is on track for around $720 million domestic in its run. Overseas the film could bring in $1.2 billion, […]

Weekend #3 of 2015 is looking like $134 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up from the norm for this weekend but down from the same weekend last year. Opening at around 3,200 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), American Sniper from Warner Brothers should average a solid $8,800 per theater for the […]

Weekend #46 of 2014 is looking like $128 million for the top 12 films this weekend, down 33% from the norm for this weekend.   Opening at 3,152 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Dumb and Dumber To from Universal should average a solid $10,400 per theater […]

  ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (Columbia/Sony), the summer’s great adult-oriented, non-franchise, auteur/movie star hope, had a solid start per preliminary numbers at Deadline with a $16.7M opening day (including $5.8M from Thursday night).  That’s the biggest opening of Quentin Tarantino’s career, higher than the $14.4M for Inglourious Basterds and the $15M for Django […]

  OPENINGS:  STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (Legendary/Universal) turned out to be somewhat frontloaded, with a 20% drop on its 2d day of release.  But no one will complain about its huge $56.1M weekend, the #6 August opening ever (and #2, behind only Signs, among non-franchise titles).  It should add plenty of gold to Universal’s 2015 pile […]

  A general note:  the last time December 22 fell on a Friday was in 2006, and a look at that year indicates what box office patterns may be between now and January 1.  We can expect most films to have a relatively mild Saturday uptick (up to 30%) then plunge by 50% or so […]