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 […]

  OPENINGS:  Beyonce’s concert documentary RENAISSANCE (Variance/AMC Theaters) led the traditionally slow first weekend of December with $21M, a shadow of the $92.8M for the Eras Tour movie a couple of months ago, but within expectations.  As with Eras Tour, it’s likely that the Renaissance box office will be front-loaded with fans, so the US […]

  OPENINGS:  THE BIKERIDERS (Regency/Focus/Universal) seized the opportunity to open on a prime summer weekend without any new tentpole releases, and the studio estimate (which assumed the strongest Sunday hold in the Top 10) was $10M, in line with expectations.  The question is how well the indie will hold up next week against new action […]

> Due to the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday, all studios are estimating low Sunday drops, although some are projecting more aggressively than others. UNIVERSAL:  CONTRABAND held almost even on Saturday, which is good for an action movie, and is projecting a reasonable (given the holiday) 21% drop on Sunday.  It should get to […]

  It was a strong multiplex weekend all over the world this week, which was good news for Hollywood and its overseas equivalents. OPENINGS:  Although David Fincher is considered one of cinema’s heavy hitters, he’s never been a blockbuster guy, and until this weekend, his biggest opening came a dozen years ago, with $30.1M for […]

Through 17 days of the Holiday Season (December 16-January 1), the top 10 films in North America each day have totaled $664 million, up 10.6% from last year ($600 million) and up 8.5% from the multi-year average since 2002 ($612 million). New Year’s Day added up to $47.6 million, slightly under the overall average for […]

> The tiny 3% drop in PUSS IN BOOTS‘ second weekend is truly remarkable, and could well lead to studios adopting DreamWorks’ strategy in the future of opening an animated movie on Halloween weekend and then having a de facto 2d opening the following week.  (However, the picture is still running $13M below Megamind‘s 10 […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is now +11% above last year and now +12% above the average for this point […]