OPENINGS: As studio greenlight and release strategies continue to morph, one thing that’s clear is that there will never be a shortage of low-budget horror movies.  SMILE (Paramount) is the latest successful arrival with $22M, following such recent releases as Barbarian, The Invitation, Pearl, and The Black Phone.  Although Smile will have to face […]

  OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS (Hasbro/Paramount) launched at the higher end of tracking expectations with $60.5M.  Beasts is a much bigger-budgeted effort than its immediate predecessor, 2018’s Bumblebee (which opened with $21.7M but had a 6x multiple thanks to word of mouth and the dynamics of the Christmas box office).  More impressively, Beasts […]

  OPENINGS:  GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (Columbia/Sony) played as a family movie, with a Saturday afternoon bump, and that enabled it to match projections at $45.2M, slightly higher than the $44M start for 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.  However, Frozen Empire cost $25M more than Afterlife, so a 3% increase at the box office may not cover the […]

  OPENINGS:  The first weekend of December brought the usual assortment of indies seeking a toehold before the holiday giants arrive, although this year was unusual in being dominated by Thanksgiving blockbusters, which grew the weekend box office total to a new record.  The most impressive of the newcomers was the Indian-language PUSHPA: THE RULE […]

> So you love me, after all Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Puss in Boots almost matched its three-day opening in weekend two, bringing its 10-day total to $76 million and increasing the final domestic estimated total to a very good $170 million.  Tower Heist and A Very Harold […]

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted now looks like a $60.4 million weekend, according to the studio estimate this morning (down from yesterday’s early estimate but still exceeding our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  Prometheus is looking like a $50.0 million weekend (or so 20th Century Fox is fervently wishing and hoping), down from yesterday’s […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #3 of 2013 is now on pace for $122 million, up from the $113 million estimate yesterday and now running ahead of the pace for the comparable weekend the past several years.  Just about every film in the top 12 picked up the pace with solid business on […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #33 of 2013 looks like an okay $121 million for the top 12 films, up 6% from the average for this weekend the past few years but down 5% from last year’s comparable weekend. Opening at 2,933 theaters Friday, Lee Daniels’ The Butler from Weinstein grossed $8.3 million […]