OPENINGS: FREAKY (Blumhouse/Universal) led the weekend at $3.7M. It was the third consecutive weekend that a Universal-branded film opened at #1 (aided by the studio’s deal with AMC that allows its films to hit digital 3 weeks after theatrical release) and the fifth new #1 to open in the $3.1-4.1M range. Like the others, […]
OPENINGS: DUNE (Legendary/Warners, also on HBO Max) launched in US theaters at $40.1M, the highest start for a film also premiering on HBO Max. (And while Warners had previously preserved Thursday night for theatrical-only, the studio allowed Dune to hit HBO Max nationwide simultaneous with its first East Coast screenings.) The film should also […]
OPENINGS: ELVIS (Warners) opened at the higher end of low expectations with $30.5M. That technically put it into a dead heat with Top Gun: Maverick for the weekend crown, although that’s misleading because like virtually all big-studio openings, Elvis essentially had a 4-day opening, while Maverick‘s weekend didn’t get to count any of its […]
OPENINGS: JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (Lionsgate) roared to a $73.5M start, more than 20% higher than its predecessor Parabellum‘s $56.8M. If it holds at that pace–and it has no direct competition until Renfield on April 14–it should become the first title in the franchise to pass $200M in the US. (Already, Lionsgate is pushing […]
OPENINGS: Hiyao Miyazaki’s THE BOY AND THE HERON (GKids) exceeded expectations and set a high-water mark for its filmmaker and for non-franchise Japanese animation with a $12.8M launch. The film will lose its Imax screens next week and faces challenges from other family-oriented films, but if word of mouth is strong and it can […]
> Well, there’s something you don’t see every day: 2 studios both content to forego bragging rights for the Sunday weekend estimates and wait for actual numbers on Monday, when public attention is lower. (Note: The Hot Blog, which calculates its own numbers, has COWBOYS & ALIENS up by $100K.) The important thing to remember […]
> Get ready for the flood of jokey 80s TV show remakes that will now be unleashed upon us. OPENINGS: 21 JUMP STREET (Sony) fell ever-so-slightly on Saturday, and if it fails to hit its $35M weekend estimate, it won’t miss by much. CASA DE MI PADRE (Pantelion/Lionsgate), though, is predicting a highly suspect 19% […]
OPENINGS: KILLING THEM SOFTLY (Weinstein) is estimating a pathetic $7M weekend, just about the worst of Brad Pitt’s starring career, and even that may be pushing it, since the studio is claiming a relatively soft Sunday drop. The same is true of the even more dismal THE COLLECTION (LD), which for reasons best known […]