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:  THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (DreamWorks/Reliance/Participant/Disney) brings to an ignominious end the distribution relationship between DreamWorks and Disney.  Their final shared title disappointed on every level, with a $5M 3-day weekend that might become $6M on Monday, and no chance of recouping its costs.  Even though the weak reviews, length and period setting worked […]

  OPENINGS:  As we noted on Friday, the 3-day weekend studio estimates are lower than they’d otherwise be, due to lower pre-holiday moviegoing on Saturday and especially Sunday.  That will all change on Christmas Day, which will usher in the biggest 8 days of the box office year. JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (Columbia/Sony) is […]

  THE MAIN EVENT:  As the roof caved in on BATMAN V SUPERMAN:  DAWN OF JUSTICE (DC/RatPac/Warners), the studio had two last-ditch goals:  to avoid a Weekend 2 result that dropped 70% from last week or dipped below $50M in the US.  Pending tomorrow’s final numbers, it appears to have managed that, with a 68% […]