WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is a first look at the studio scorecard for the 2016 slates.  We have updated the summary categories somewhat this year with the top category now reserved for films over $500 million worldwide and the lower category for films under $150 million worldwide.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at […]

  OPENINGS:  Considering that DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW AGE (Focus/Universal) is something like a fresh MCU chapter for the older female audience, the fact that the sequel opened at $16M despite solid reviews–a painful 48% drop from the first theatrical entry in the franchise just 3 years ago–is a sobering sign that this demo just […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. With the strong domestic and international opening of Despicable Me 2, Universal had a very good week (up $311 million from last week and almost catching Warner Brothers in terms of worldwide box office for the year).  Warner Brothers, thanks to Man of Steel, still brought in $157 million this week.  Next week the studio […]

  OPENINGS:  A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL (Lionsgate) launched at $27.1M, and with the exception of the outliers Madea Goes To Jail ($41M) and A Madea Christmas ($16M), that puts it in the standard $21-30M range of the franchise.  It should be headed for $65M in the US, and that’s the only number that counts, since […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Despite having the only movie to cross the $300 million worldwide line (The Lego Movie), Warner Brothers lags behind Sony which has no mega-hit but three of its four films in 2014 are at $100 million or more worldwide.  But it’s early in the race with Disney yet to release a film in […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Paramount got off the mat with the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction, pushing the studio over $1.0 billion worldwide for the year to date and into 5th place and now above Universal.  Disney ($1.66 billion worldwide for 2014 to date) moved slightly above Sony ($1.65 billion) thanks to continued overseas grosses […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now +6% above last year and now +6% above the average for this point the past four years ($4.580 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over […]

  OPENINGS:  The weekend belonged to ZOOTOPIA (Disney Animation/Disney), which broke its studio unit’s opening record and the March animation record with $73.7M, and also earned $63.4M internationally (including $24M from China) to give it a worldwide total, counting early foreign openings, of $232.5M, with plenty of road ahead, and only The Little Prince as […]