WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is still +9% above last year and still +11% above the average for this point […]

  OPENINGS:  Even in a normal box office marketplace, a mild rom-com with no big-name stars like THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY (TriStar/Sony) probably wouldn’t have made much money, and it has both a low production budget and limited marketing costs going for it.  All that being said, though, there’s nothing about a $1.1M weekend at […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is now +10% above last year and now +14% above the average for this point […]

The Holiday Season at the North American box office is off to a fairly solid start in 2013.  Over the past seven days (December 16-22), the top 10 films in the North American each day have totaled $193 million, a big 32% jump over the lackluster 2012 total over the same period ($146 million) and […]

  OPENINGS:  The weekend belonged to ZOOTOPIA (Disney Animation/Disney), which broke its studio unit’s opening record and the March animation record with $73.7M, and also earned $63.4M internationally (including $24M from China) to give it a worldwide total, counting early foreign openings, of $232.5M, with plenty of road ahead, and only The Little Prince as […]

> Due to the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday, all studios are estimating low Sunday drops, although some are projecting more aggressively than others. UNIVERSAL:  CONTRABAND held almost even on Saturday, which is good for an action movie, and is projecting a reasonable (given the holiday) 21% drop on Sunday.  It should get to […]

  OPENINGS;  It’s no surprise that a sequel has already been announced (and scheduled for June 3, 2016, for those who like to get their Fandango orders in early) for TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (Nickelodeon/Paramount), which blew past all expectations with a reported $65M opening weekend.  The CG action spectacle dipped only 14% on Saturday, […]

  OPENINGS:  PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 (MGM/Sony/Columbia) was at the high end of diminished expectations with $24M.  That’s roughly 25% below the $31.8M start for the first Paul Blart, not a surprise considering that the Blart franchise was far from universally beloved.  The question will be whether Blart 2 can have anything like its […]