OPENINGS:  Thanks to a slightly higher Saturday than its predecessor (down 42% from Friday instead of 44%), THE TWILIGHT SAGA:  BREAKING DAWN PART 2 (Summit/Lionsgate) is headed for the 2nd highest opening of the franchise, its $141.3M behind only New Moon‘s $142.8M.  However, the series boxoffice numbers are so tightly bunched together that we […]

  OPENINGS:  FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) dropped 16% on Sunday and estimates a 13% slip on Monday–that latter number may be a little overoptimistic, but even if it turns out that the 4-day total is $119M instead of $120M, it matters very little except to Universal’s press people.  FF6 was easily the 4th best […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. In the worldwide studio rankings for 2013 to date, Warner Brothers solidified its first place position, thanks to Gravity.  As we do with all films, the full estimated domestic tally has been added to the studio year to date total, while the overseas numbers will be added as those actual results come in.  So […]

  OPENINGS:  After Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, and now THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners), writer/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will be able to do just about anything they want:  all 3 of their projects have not only been smash hits, but they’ve greatly overperformed expectations, spawning 3 new franchises in […]

  The studios continued to be bullish on their holiday estimates, with preliminary Monday numbers expecting strong business that may or may not be confirmed in final box office figures tomorrow.  For now, the most optimistic film is HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony), expecting a mere 7% drop on Monday, with the older skewing NEIGHBORS […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal and Sony each had weeks over $100 million, mostly because of the domestic releases of The Boxtrolls (Focus) and The Equalizer.  But both movies remain mired toward the bottom of the worldwide studio rankings. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014.   YEAR TO DATE BOX […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The 2014 Scorecard, updated with additional overseas grosses, has been updated below.  The 2015 Scorecard will be introduced toward the end of January. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is -4% behind last year but +7% above the average for this point the past […]

  OPENINGS:  SAN ANDREAS (Village Roadshow/RatPac Dune/New Line/Warners) had a solid 13% Saturday bump that propelled it to a $53.2M weekend, significantly above expectations–and with no direct competition arriving next weekend, it should hold fairly well (until Jurassic World arrives in 2 weeks).  The surprising part of the picture is that given that level of […]