OPENINGS:  MOANA (Disney Animation) notched the #2 5-day Thanksgiving opening of all time with $81.1M (unless tomorrow’s finals put it behind Toy Story 2‘s $80.1M), and it should easily hit $250M before it’s done, especially since Universal’s Sing is its only serious family competition for the holiday season.  Its international release is going to […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. Warner Brothers has jumped into second place in worldwide box office for the year to date, thanks to the opening of Man of Steel and to some extent continued overseas business for Great Gatsby and Hangover 3.  With the projected domestic total for Man of Steel, Warners is now the #1 studio domestically […]

  OPENINGS:  There were no new wide openings on this pre-holiday season weekend in the US, but things were busier overseas.  AQUAMAN (DC/Warners), which won’t arrive in the US until December 21, launched in China with a huge $93.6M, the best start for any Warner Bros film in that country, and almost as much as […]

> Live by Cinemascore, die by Cinemascore. THE DEVIL INSIDE:  The most hilarious studio event of the last 24 hours has been Paramount‘s frantic attempt to argue that an “F” Cinemascore for THE DEVIL INSIDE, making it one of the half-dozen worst exit-polled movies of the past several years, isn’t really that bad if you […]

  OPENINGS:  KNOCK AT THE CABIN (Universal) won the eternal footnote that it was the film to finally dethrone Avatar 2 at the top of the box office, but its $14.2 start was at the low end of expectations, below the $16.8M for 2021’s Old and thus M. Night Shyamalan’s lowest opening since his pre-Sixth Sense […]

  OPENINGS:  SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (Columbia/Sony) owned the Independence Day holiday, with $93.6M over the 3-day weekend, and a $185.1M total since its Tuesday opening.  Comparisons are inexact due to the 6-day holiday start, but it was considerably ahead of The Amazing Spider-Man, which also had a 6-day opening (with July 4th on Wednesday […]

> The Games are barely slowing down. THE HUNGER GAMES:  We’ll find out soon enough whether any of the genuinely exciting rumors about possible sequel directors (Alfonso Cuaron, David Cronenberg) are true, because Lionsgate needs Catching Fire in the can by early 2013, when Jennifer Lawrence has to report for X-Men duty.  For now, THE […]

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 -7% below last year’s comparable span (2 points worse than last week) and now basically even with the average at this point the past four years ($4.565 billion).  Over […]