WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.     YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +5% above last year and +7% above the average for this point the past four years ($3.043 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $9.2 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 films by studio.  We will begin tracking the 2017 slate in a few weeks. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is +12% above last year and still +29% above the average for this point the past four years ($0.190 billion).  Over the […]

  AMERICAN SNIPER (Village Roadshow/Warners):  Depending on how one characterizes Titanic, American Sniper is on track to become the #3 or #4 “serious drama” of all time, behind that film, The Passion of the Christ ($370.8M) and Forrest Gump ($330.3M).  Even if this weekend’s studio estimate of $64.4M turns out to have been tinkered with […]

  OPENINGS:  Despite a bounty of new titles, nothing touched the holdover at the top of the weekend box office.  The newcomer with the closest claim to “success” in the US was THE POPE’S EXORCIST (Screen Gems/Sony), with $9.2M.  The horror movie also reported $27.4M in overseas release, which would put it on a road […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is still +3% above last year and still +3% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.143 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $24.0 billion worldwide when we […]

  OPENINGS:  For both 3 DAYS TO KILL (Relativity) and POMPEII (TriStar/Sony/FilmDistrict), the only hope of salvation lies overseas.  3 Days, at least, has a relatively low production cost, but even if the reported $28M figure is accurate, its $12.3M US weekend won’t get it anywhere near recoupment of its worldwide marketing expenses.  Things are […]

  OPENINGS:  JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL (Columbia/Sony) successfully rode its strategy of arriving in theatres ahead of The Rise of Skywalker to a $60.1M weekend, far ahead of the $36.2M opening weekend for the last Jumanji (although that had a different release pattern, opening on the Wednesday between that year’s Star Wars installment and Christmas […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Warner Brothers moved back into first place for the year with the release of Focus, although it really is a virtual tie with Universal. Note: the Scorecard has been updated below, flipping The DUFF and McFarland, USA to their correct studios. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, […]