WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Strong overseas grosses for Captain America: The Winter Soldier has pushed Disney slightly ahead of Warner Brothers for worldwide box office to date (with each studio over $800 million so far this year).  Rio 2 has pushed Fox to over $700 million worldwide in 2014.  Sony, Universal and Paramount are next with about $500 million […]

This feature will return next week. ###

  OPENINGS:  SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK (CBS/Lionsgate) dropped 21% on its 2nd day of release, which isn’t unusual for the horror genre (recently, The Curse of La Llorona fell 26% on its Day 2, and Child’s Play was down 25%), resulting in a $20.8M weekend, and a likely $40M US total.  Scary […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is now +5% above last year and +8% above the average for this point the past four years ($2.174 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $6.4 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (DreamWorks/Reliance/Participant/Disney) brings to an ignominious end the distribution relationship between DreamWorks and Disney.  Their final shared title disappointed on every level, with a $5M 3-day weekend that might become $6M on Monday, and no chance of recouping its costs.  Even though the weak reviews, length and period setting worked […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is now +6% above last year and now +15% above the average for this point […]

    Beware of studio estimates and round numbers. OPENINGS:  In order to get MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) to a round $70M for the 4-day weekend, the studio had to claim the lowest Monday drop of the market’s Top 9 films–even though MIB3 hasn’t shown any particular strength with the family matinee audience (its […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is still +10% above last year and still +12% above the average for this point […]