OPENINGS:  KUNG FU PANDA 4 (DreamWorks Animation/Universal), the first new all-ages animated release since the holiday season, arrived at the high end of projections with $58.3M, impressively above the $41.3M start for 2016’s Panda 3.  (And at a reported production budget 40% lower than its predecessor.)  It faces no direct competition for months, and […]

>It was an even merrier Christmas than the studios were anticipating, as most of the holiday openings zoomed up more than 100% from their Saturday grosses, with even more of an increase expected on Monday. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL (Paramount): Still very much at the front of the pack, with a terrific 120% boost […]

  OPENINGS:  THE POSSESSION (Lionsgate) is doing quite well for a low-budget horror quickie, with $17.7M for the 1st 3 days of the holiday weekend, and is on track to be the #2 Labor Day opening ever, behind only the 2007 remake of Halloween.  LAWLESS (Weinstein Company), though, at $9.7M, is behind last year’s The […]

  OPENINGS:  The only reason to make a movie like THE CROODS (DreamWorks Animation/20th) is to get a piece of the remarkable overseas business that the Ice Age franchise sees ($716M on the last one alone), but so far, Croods is looking a little soft internationally, with $63.3M this weekend in territories covering roughly half the world.  That’s better than the […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal and Warner Brothers again flipped positions in the year to date worldwide box office chart.  Universal didn’t have much this week (the lame domestic opening of Kick-Ass 2 and some continued overseas business from Despicable Me 2), but it was certainly more than Warner Brothers, which has grown very quiet here […]

No changes in the studio rankings this week, the top two studios had enormous weeks (each around $250 million) from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (Warner Brothers) and Frozen (Disney), with each film experiencing a significantly upgraded domestic total forecast and very big grosses overseas.  For a complete ranking of 2013 films individually by worldwide performance click here. TOTAL NORTH […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  A great week for Fox, which vaults into second place and just over $900 million worldwide box office year to date.  The very strong Fox week was paced by the domestic rollout of The Other Woman and continued international strength from Rio 2.  Disney remains in the top spot with just under $1 billion worldwide […]

  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 […]