OPENINGS:  PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount), with its $18.2M weekend, made less at 2867 theatres than the first Paranormal made at 760, a little more than 4 years ago.  It was also well below the $29M weekend for the last Paranormal installment in 2012 (which had been the franchise low).  In other words, […]

  OPENINGS:  As summer kick-off weekends go, the $92M for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony)–which may go down by $1M or so in final numbers tomorrow, given an aggressively high Sunday estimate–was pretty mild.  It came in below the openings of 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013 (above only the first Thor and the first Wolverine […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studio rankings remain unchanged, and #1 Fox continues to do well, thanks to more overseas grosses from both Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and How to Train Your Dragon 2.   The second best week worldwide belongs to #6 Universal, not so much because of the domestic release of As Above/So Below but mostly […]

  Although we’re still a few days away from December 25, the holiday movie rush is upon us, which should mean an unusually strong Sunday that will lead into 2 solid weeks of weekday numbers that look more like weekends. OPENINGS:  THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (New Line/MGM/Warners) is off to a […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.     YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +5% above last year and +7% above the average for this point the past four years ($3.043 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $9.2 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

  Note:  Because of the holiday weekend and consequent strong Sunday, weekend-to-weekend drops will look softer than usual. OPENINGS:  It was a weak battle of newcomers, with A WALK IN THE WOODS (Broad Green) ahead at $8.4M ($10.5M with Wed-Thurs earnings) vs. THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED (Europa/RED) at $7.1M.  Walk compares well to the $8.5M opening […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  We will continue tracking 2015 for several more weeks as the holiday films finish their runs.  We will begin tracking 2016 in a few weeks.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, after one week 2016 to date begins +31% above last year and +13% above the average for […]

  OPENINGS:  Word of mouth kicked in on Saturday for CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (Marvel/Disney), which fell a mild 19% from opening day, much better than the 38% drop for Batman v Superman and the 33% for The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (although not quite as good as the 10% for Iron Man 3, 14% for The Avengers […]