OPENINGS:  Things didn’t get better for ALLEGIANT (Summit/Lionsgate) as the weekend went on.  Its $29.1M opening was down an awful 44% from the $52.3M for Insurgent, and with massive competition arriving next week and word of mouth that’s likely to be terrible, it may struggle to get past $75M in the US.  As we […]

  OPENINGS:  WONDER WOMAN (RatPac/Wanda/Ten Cent/DC/Warners) is a big win with $100.5M in the US, and for the DC franchise, the 93% at Rotten Tomatoes may be almost as important a number.  It’s also worth noting that unusually, Warners has conservatively estimated Sunday with a 28% drop (by comparison, Guardians Vol 2, arguably with less […]

  OPENINGS:  At $6.5M, THE POSSESSION OF HANNAH GRACE (Screen Gems/Sony) performed adequately for a low-budget horror item placed in one of the lower-grossing weekends of the year.  Possession also earned $4.1M in 17 international territories, the start of a release that will extend into early 2019.  It has around $30M in production and worldwide […]

  OPENINGS:  STAR TREK BEYOND (Skydance/Alibaba/Huahua/Paramount) had a tepid start, claiming a $59.6M opening weekend in the US.  Even if that number holds (it includes an extremely aggressive Sunday estimate), it would be 20% below the $75..2M 2009 franchise reboot, and even below the $70.2M earned by Star Trek Into Darkness, which opened on a […]

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 now -10% below last year’s comparable span (1 point worse than last week) and still -2% below the average at this point the past four years ($3.722 billion).  Over the same […]

  Strong holds by Dawn of the Planet Of the Apes and some longer-running titles made this weekend look less terrible than it was. OPENINGS:  THE PURGE: ANARCHY (Universal) topped the newcomers with $28.4M, but that was 17% below the $34.1M opening weekend for last year’s Purge.  While Purge 2 will turn a profit, it […]

  OPENINGS:  I FEEL PRETTY (Voltage/H Brothers/STX) became the first Amy Schumer movie to dip on its 2nd day of release, indicating weak word of mouth.  Its $16.2M weekend put it in 3rd place for the weekend, with uncertain prospects.  STX only has the film in the US, with reported costs of $45M, which may […]

  OPENINGS:  The adult-oriented OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY (DreamWorks/Paramount) had a 3% Saturday bump and wound up with a fair $17.5M for the weekend  If it can hold decently against next week’s monstrous arrival, it might find its way to $50M in the US, although its dream is to have the kind of holiday legs Sisters did […]