Weekend #28 of 2015 is looking like $194 million for the top 12 films this weekend, slightly above the norm for this weekend and way above last year’s very soft weekend (see comparisons below).  [Note: a previous version of this post had incorrect estimated weekend totals.] Minions from Universal should open with a $108 million three-day weekend. Early reviews at RottenTomatoes […]

  Behaving much like recent high-profile sequels Spectre and Mockingjay Part 2, RIDE ALONG 2 (Universal) appears to be heading for an opening weekend around 20% below its predecessor.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Ride 2 had a $11.8M Friday, compared to $14.4M for the original Ride Along.  That suggests a 4-day holiday weekend […]

  AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (Marvel/Disney), with little in the way of challenge from the other studios, is flying to an easy victory in its 2nd weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Infinity War fell 72% from last Friday to $30.3M, a worse drop than the parallel days for The Avengers (-64%) and Black Panther […]

  Are Americans tired of superhero movies?  There were whispers to that effect after The Avengers: Age of Ultron underperformed a bit and Fantastic Four outright flopped last year, but clearly the answer is Hell, No.  DEADPOOL (Marvel/20th) puts a new R-rated satiric spin on the genre (very carefully:  its jokes are aimed at Fox’s […]

  JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (Legendary/Perfect World/Universal) finally arrived in the US with a $58.4M opening day ($15.3M from Thursday night), according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  If Fallen Kingdom follows the same trajectory as the 2015 Jurassic World reboot, that should mean a $145M weekend, and a $400M+ eventual US total.  That’s a lot […]

  Even with a new horror movie in the market, A QUIET PLACE (Paramount) continued to over-perform, down just 46% from last Friday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline to $10.2M, putting it on track for a $35M 2nd weekend.  That’s the same hold as last year’s Split, and with higher numbers, suggesting that Quiet […]

  OPENINGS:  THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (Illumination/Universal) quintupled the next-highest grosser of the weekend, with the biggest opening in US history for an animated non-sequel at $103.2M, easily passing last year’s $90.4M for Inside Out.  It remains to be seen if Pets can match Inside Out‘s nearly 4x multiple, but whatever happens from here, […]

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 […]