OPENINGS:  The $40M weekend estimate for THE HEAT (20th) makes more sense than it did last night, now that the movie’s Saturday is being reported as a 6% increase rather than a 5% drop.  (But always be suspicious of round-number estimates anyway.)  The Heat is going to be profitable, thanks to its $45M production budget, […]

  OPENINGS:  THOR: THE DARK WORLD (Disney) held essentially even on Saturday, an excellent result for a franchise movie, especially where a chunk of its “Friday” number had come from Thursday night screenings.  (In comparison, Iron Man 3 dropped 10% on its second day of release.)  Presumably because of that strong Saturday hold, Disney is […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Warner Brothers has pulled ahead thanks to the opening of 300: Rise of an Empire and recent overseas grosses from The LEGO Movie, as it really kicks into gear outside North America. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014.   YEAR TO DATE […]

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 […]

  OPENINGS:  NIGHTCRAWLER (Open Road) and Ouija are in a dead heat for the weekend title, with Nightcrawler claiming a temporary $9000 edge at $10.909M.  We won’t know the real winner until tomorrow, but Ouija is already admitting a 52% Sunday drop, while Nightcrawler maintains that it will only fall 35% today.  That number is […]

  OPENINGS:  None of the newcomers made much of an impression.  At the moment, MCFARLAND USA (Disney) is claiming a slim victory over THE DUFF (CBS/Lionsgate), $11.3M vs. $11M, but that’s based on a far more aggressive Sunday estimate by Disney (predicting a 30% Sunday drop vs 42%), and when the numbers are so close, […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal had another huge week with the release of Minions and Jurassic World taking over the spot as #1 film of the year worldwide.  Universal now boasts four of the top five films of the year (see individual film ranking chart below).  The other studios are playing a different game this year.   YEAR TO DATE […]

  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 […]