WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -5% below last year’s comparable span and still basically even with this point the past four years ($7.601 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost […]

  OPENINGS:  For a year lean on powerhouse franchises and expected to be tough at the box office, Hollywood’s 2020 is off to a heartening start.  Following last week’s strong performance by 1917, this week’s BAD BOYS FOR LIFE (Columbia/Sony) blasted through expectations with a $59.2M 3-day weekend ($68M with the Monday holiday), and with […]

  OPENINGS:  Sony is one of the last remaining studios to honor the full conventional theatrical distribution window, so MONSTER HUNTER (Screen Gems/Sony) will have roughly 3 months to sell tickets before it’s available at home.  It may need every day of that time after a $2.2M start, weak even by pandemic terms.  It’s also […]

  OPENINGS:  After an October built on blockbusters that had been held off the market for more than a year, Thanksgiving weekend served as a reminder (to all except those paid to tout box office totals) that the theatrical release business continues to be far from recovered in the lingering Covid world.  Overall business was […]

  OPENINGS:  LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS (DC/Warners) arrived with a blah $23M, given its franchise-adjacent pedigree and starry voice cast, and it wasn’t very animated overseas either, with $18.4M in 63 markets.  It faces almost no competition for family audiences through the rest of the summer, which may help it stretch its run by enough to […]

  OPENINGS:  History seems to be repeating itself for filmmaker Kelly Fremon Craig, whose extremely well-reviewed ARE YOU THERE GOD?  IT’S ME, MARGARET (Lionsgate) opened with a soft $6.8M (and that studio estimate assumes an unusually strong Sunday).  That’s very similar to Craig’s also critically-praised 2016 The Edge of Seventeen, which had a $4.9M opening […]

  OPENINGS:  ARGYLLE (Apple/Universal) arrived within blah expectations at $18M.  That makes it the third consecutive wildly expensive theatrical flop for Apple (with worldwide marketing included, costs were around $300M), and while the company has a few more projects on the calendar, including a pair of Brad Pitt vehicles, one has to wonder how many […]

  OPENINGS:  With an assortment of excuses (the World Series!  a video game release!  Halloween!  birthday parties?!?), VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (Marvel/Columbia/Sony) tottered to $51M in the US, down 43% from 2021’s Let There Be Carnage.  At this point it seems to be heading for $125M domestically, down from $213.6M.  Things are much stronger overseas, […]