OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) was a bit softer on Saturday than Denzel Washington’s other hits at this box office level, up 8% compared to 11% for American Gangster and 19% for Safe House.  (Possibly because Equalizer is a terrible movie.)  That resulted in a $35M weekend that was slightly lower than Friday’s start had […]

  OPENINGS:  Not to throw any cold water on the extremely impressive performance of THE PURGE (Universal), but it’s unlikely that the thriller will slip only 12% on Sunday, as Universal is forecasting, when the next-lowest Sunday estimate in the Top 10 is almost double that.  (The idea seems to be that after a 38% […]

  OPENINGS:  LUCY (Universal) is claiming the lowest Sunday drop in the Top 10, so the studio’s $44M weekend estimate may come down a bit tomorrow, but it’s still a very solid hit for all concerned.  That’s especially true for Scarlett Johansson, who now has non-Avenger action movie bona fides.  The only question is whether […]

  OPENINGS:  In the world of family movies, the 33% Saturday bump for A WRINKLE IN TIME (Disney) was mediocre.  (By comparison, Peter Rabbit rose 97% on its 1st Saturday.)  That brought the weekend to a soft $33.3M.  Family movies sometimes enjoy lengthy runs and high multiples, and Wrinkle faces little direct competition in the […]

> Beware the round-number weekend estimate. OPENINGS:  THE GREY (Open Road) is claiming an even $20M gross for the weekend, which would make tomorrow’s adjusted number starting with “19” no surprise at all.  In any case, it’s a bit lower than Liam Neeson’s other starts in his new career as an action star, but Grey […]

  HOLDOVERS:  On a weekend without new wide releases, COCO (Pixar/Disney) had no trouble holding its crown with $26.1M.  Its 49% drop from Thanksgiving weekend was better than other Disney animations in that slot (50% for Moana, 56% for Tangled, 53% for Frozen), and it should be on track for $225M+ in the US.  Coco […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Very little change in the studio rankings of worldwide box office for the year to date.  No studio changed its ranking this week, and the top four studios grossed a modest $60 to $101 million each over the past week. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so […]

  OPENINGS:  THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (Illumination/Universal) quintupled the next-highest grosser of the weekend, with the biggest opening in US history for an animated non-sequel at $103.2M, easily passing last year’s $90.4M for Inside Out.  It remains to be seen if Pets can match Inside Out‘s nearly 4x multiple, but whatever happens from here, […]