OPENINGS:  TOMB RAIDER (MGM/Warners) was a reboot that no one asked for, and although franchise movies aren’t star vehicles, the casting of Alicia Vikander in the lead didn’t excite anyone either.  Its $23.5M US weekend won’t get it very far in recouping $200M+ in production/marketing costs.  Things are better overseas, where Tomb Raider earned […]

Based on Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #7 of 2013 is looking a touch better than yesterday: now $126 million for the top 12 films during the traditional Friday-Sunday period of this holiday weekend (only 2% behind the pace for the same weekend the last few years).         A Good Day to Die Hard from […]

  OPENINGS:  The summer saga of underperforming franchise titles continued with WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (TSG/20th), with a $56.5M start that’s 22% below the $72.6M opening for Dawn 3 years ago, and just barely ahead of the $54.8M for 2011’s Rise (despite costing $60M more to produce than Rise).  Even with rave […]

  OPENINGS:  Under the current circumstances, the 5-day $17M opening ($9.7M Friday-Sunday) for THE CROODS: A NEW AGE (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) counts as a win, with comparisons to the original Croods or any other Thanksgiving release fairly pointless.  The film also earned $19.2M in China and $1.6M in 6 smaller international markets.  New Age reportedly had […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #29 of 2015 looks like $185 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a touch above the norm for this weekend and way above last year’s weak weekend. Opening at 3,856 theaters Friday, Ant-Man from Marvel and Disney is on track for a $58.0 million opening three-day weekend (slightly below our $64.5 million […]

  OPENINGS:  INSIDE OUT 2 (Pixar/Disney) overdelivered massively compared to expectations with $155M in the US, a remarkable $65M higher than the start for 2015’s original Inside Out, and depending whether you count the “live-action” CG remake of The Lion King ($191.8M) as animated, either the #2 or #3 US opening for an animated feature […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #13 of 2014 now looks like $133 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up from yesterday’s estimate ($126 million) and now down only 5% from the average for this weekend the past several years.   Opening at 3,567 theaters Friday, Noah from Paramount grossed $15.2 million through Friday and $17.6 […]

Like last week, Saturday was somewhat stronger than anticipated yesterday — the weekend now looks like $84 million instead of $81 million for the top 12 films.   The Possession and Lawless both look like they will be about one million dollars higher for the Friday-Sunday portion of the long weekend.  Oogieloves and the BIG […]