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 -6% below last year’s comparable span (1 point worse than last week’s comparison) and now basically even with this point the past four years ($8.852 billion).  Over the […]

  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:  Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (Columbia/Sony) had a 21% Saturday drop, indicating a fair amount of frontloading, but studio estimates have it reaching its goal at $40.4M for the weekend, setting a new record for the filmmaker by topping Inglourious Basterds‘ $38.1M.  (However, Basterds opened in the era before opening […]

  OPENINGS:  DESPICABLE ME 3 (Illumination/Universal) is the latest franchise to underdeliver this summer, with a 3-day studio estimate of $75.4M in the US.  That’s far below the $115.7M opening of Minions, and it compares badly with Despicable 2 as well, since that title earned $83.5M over its first weekend after having already banked $59.6M […]

  OPENINGS:  The big box office news of this weekend happened overseas, where THE HOBBIT:  THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (New Line/MGM/Warners) has already opened in 37 territories to a massive $117.6M in advance of its US launch next week.  The Hobbit movies have done overwhelmingly well overseas, with the previous installments earning respectively […]

  OPENINGS:  Although it won’t arrive here until the end of the week, Ridley Scott’s EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (20th) had a strong start in 10 overseas territories with $23M.  It will be gunning for the $261.4M foreign total of Noah earlier this year. Other than that, the pitiful THE PYRAMID (20th) managed $1.35M at […]

  All boxoffice figures are unofficial until tomorrow, when the studios will once again admit that they’re in a business designed to make money.  However, numbers have made their way to the outside world, and it seems clear that as midsummer Saturdays go, yesterday was slower than usual, probably by a factor of 10-20% virtually […]

Audiences decide they want to see movies again. OPENINGS:  With the market starved for family entertainment (the last major animated opening was Ice Age 4 back in July), HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (Sony) and its $43M smashed the September opening record and the Sony Animations record, and comes in just behind Shark Tale as the biggest animated […]