OPENINGS:  TOMB RAIDER (MGM/Warners) was a reboot that no one asked for, and although franchise movies aren’t star vehicles, the casting of Alicia Vikander in the lead didn’t excite anyone either.  Its $23.5M US weekend won’t get it very far in recouping $200M+ in production/marketing costs.  Things are better overseas, where Tomb Raider earned […]

  OPENINGS:  LET HIM GO (Focus/Universal) had a more substantial marketing campaign than most recent arrivals, and it seemed to benefit modestly from the added resources with a $4.1M weekend, the same start that Honest Thief had a few weeks ago. In limited release, THE DARK AND THE WICKED (RLJE) opened with $65K at 68 […]

  OPENINGS:  MALEFICENT (Disney) is claiming a $70M weekend, and like all round-number estimates, that should be viewed with some skepticism.  But even if it dips slightly in final numbers tomorrow, it’s a fine start.  It’s not, however, the equal of Disney’s other revisionist fairy tales Alice In Wonderland ($116.1M) or Oz: The Great and […]

  OPENINGS:  When studios trot out “bad weather” as their excuse for an underwhelming opening, it’s the industry equivalent of citing a homework-eating dog–and this week, it’s particularly clear that the inclement conditions that supposedly affected FOCUS (RatPac Dune/Warners) didn’t interfere at all with the holdovers that performed very strongly over the past 3 days.  […]

  OPENINGS:  The musical remake of MEAN GIRLS (Paramount) was within expectations at $28M for the 3-day weekend ($32M is anticipated with the inclusion of Monday’s MLK Day holiday).  The film, which was originally developed for streaming, had a moderate budget, so it should be on its way to a fair amount of profit.  The […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is now running -7% behind last year (versus -6% through last week) and now -2% below the average for this point the past four years […]

  OPENINGS:   A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (20th) pulled ahead of the competition on Saturday, and should have a $38M 5-day opening.  (However, its Sunday projection is on the optimistic side, so it’s possible the number could come down a bit.)  That’s 25% below the opening of Live Free Or Die Hard, and […]

> After a nice Friday bump, TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON took a small step backwards yesterday, with a lower % of increase than either of its predecessors had on their first Saturdays.  As Mitch Metcalf noted in his piece on holiday weekend boxoffice, films in general should benefit from smaller than usual declines today, […]