OPENINGS:  Nothing improved for the weekend’s newcomers after Friday’s dim numbers.  THE LAST WITCH HUNTER (QED/Summit/Lionsgate) led with a soft $10.8M, and whether or not Lionsgate is being entirely frank when it claims to have little exposure, someone is going to be feeling a tug on their wallet.  The results overseas, not unexpectedly, were […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +4% above last year and still +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.144 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $24.3 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

  OPENINGS:  As usual with new arrivals, the eager studios behind GI JOE: RETALIATION (Paramount/MGM) have claimed a low Sunday decline (2d lowest in the Top 10), so the $41.2M weekend and $51.7M opening 4 days could slip a bit when final numbers are released tomorrow–and even if they don’t, that 4 day figure is […]

  OPENINGS:  If a movie like THE BUTLER (Weinstein) can make back most of its production cost in a single weekend (and The Help did the same 2 years ago), why aren’t there more movies like The Butler?  The answer is the other side of the coin of “Why are there so many action-fantasy adventure […]

  OPENINGS:  No one, including its studio, expected much from the remake of FIRESTARTER (Blumhouse/Universal, also on Peacock), and it delivered a weak $3.8M that suggests an eventual $10M US total.  Economics become murky when films also premiere on streaming, but that certainly isn’t good.  Things were no better overseas, where Firestarter limped to $2.1M […]

  There was no miraculous Saturday save for the weekend’s one pitiful arrival. OPENINGS:  PLAYING FOR KEEPS (FilmDistrict) rose only 11% from Friday to Saturday, and since it’s claiming one of the lower Sunday drops in the Top 10, once the real tickets are counted it may not even hang on to its current $6M […]

  OPENINGS:  History seems to be repeating itself for filmmaker Kelly Fremon Craig, whose extremely well-reviewed ARE YOU THERE GOD?  IT’S ME, MARGARET (Lionsgate) opened with a soft $6.8M (and that studio estimate assumes an unusually strong Sunday).  That’s very similar to Craig’s also critically-praised 2016 The Edge of Seventeen, which had a $4.9M opening […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is still +4% above last year and now +7% above the average for this point the past four years ($3.158 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed just over $9.0 billion worldwide […]