OPENINGS:  Labor Day weekend is traditionally Hollywood’s graveyard, and no major studio touched the holiday with a fresh arrival.  DON’T LET GO (Blumhouse Tilt/OTL) tried to take advantage of the quiet, with a $2.4M start in 922 theatres, which should go to $3M with Monday.  Even considering its very low production/marketing budget, this will probably end […]

  OPENINGS:  CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (Disney) led the newcomers with $25M (as is always the case with studio estimates that barely exceed a round number, that may decline in finals tomorrow), 16% better than Disney’s debut of Pete’s Dragon in August 2016.  However, the films had different trajectories, with Robin down 9% on Saturday, while Dragon […]

  OPENINGS:  At $21.4M, PRISONERS (Warners) is exactly where the studio hoped it would be, at the sweet spot that propelled The Town to a $92M total (and Argo, with its Oscar help, to $136M).  The question now is whether it can hold on to its momentum against newcomers like Gravity, Captain Phillips, The Fifth Estate […]

  OPENINGS:  We won’t really know the order of the weekend’s closely-bunched Top 3 movies until final numbers are released tomorrow, but since the default position of any studio with a new opening is to claim victory, the fact that AMERICAN MADE (Cross Creek/Universal) is currently in 2nd place with $17M can’t be a good […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. Disney solidified its grip on first place in worldwide box office (thanks to Monsters University), while Paramount jumped ahead of 20th Century Fox courtesy of World War Z. TOTAL NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE. Looking at wide-release films in North America (those that play on at least 400 screens at some point), 2013 now […]

  OPENINGS:  Box office expectations were high for THE SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE (Nintendo/Illumination/Universal), but the video game adaptation blew past them with a record-smashing $204.6M 5-day opening (passing the $200.1M for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) that was huge in all quadrants.  Even though Friday was its 3rd day of release, the 3-day weekend […]

> With the superpowers wielded only by Hollywood studio estimators, CAPTAIN AMERICA:  THE FIRST AVENGER has leaped ahead of Thor to claim the biggest superhero opening of the year.  But Captain America and HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (PART 2) are the only pictures in the Top 10 predicting a Sunday drop of less […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. In the worldwide studio rankings for 2013 to date, Warner Brothers again distanced itself from the others as Gravity enjoyed an upgraded domestic final and the start of overseas dollars, which will soon turn into a gusher.  Sony also had a good week as Captain Phillips came aboard and overseas results from other […]