OPENINGS:  RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON (Disney, also on Disney+) launched with $8.6M in theatres, and while it also earned (undisclosed) income from super-premium VOD through Disney+, that number was notably lower than last week’s $14.1M for Tom & Jerry, which premiered simultaneously on HBO Max.  Raya was supposed to benefit from the reopening […]

  OPENINGS:  The male 18-34 demo was again at the center of the box office, largely fueling the $23.5M start for JACKASS FOREVER (Paramount), not quite at the level of the last product of the franchise, 2013’s Bad Grandpa, and its $32.1M start, but more than enough to ensure profitability at its low cost point.  […]

  OPENINGS:  It was the Thanksgiving holiday of Hollywood’s dreams, spearheaded by the record-breaking performance of MOANA 2 (Disney), which shoveled in $221M during the Wed-Sun period and $135.5M for the weekend itself.  Most Thanksgiving blockbusters launch the weekend before the holiday, so there aren’t a lot of direct comparisons to make.  In contrast to […]

  OPENINGS:  NAPOLEON (Apple/Sony) launched at the higher end of expectations, with $20.4M over the 3-day weekend and $32.5M for the 5-day holiday.  As with Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon, however, that leaves it a long way from any hope of breakeven on roughly $300M in production/marketing costs (particularly considering that audience polling indicated […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #45 of 2014 now looks like $149 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, still up 7% the norm for this weekend ($140 million) but lower than it appeared yesterday ($154 million) and now down -7% from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,761 theaters, Big Hero […]

  OPENINGS:  The older, less frontloaded audience for THE LEGEND OF TARZAN (Village Roadshow/RatPac/Warners) allowed it to slip ahead of the holiday weekend’s new arrivals, down just 10% from Friday for a 3-day $38.1M weekend that should become $46M by Monday.  Unfortunately for the mega-budgeted adventure, that still means around a $125M US total, which […]

  OPENINGS:  This was supposed to be the kick-off weekend for the holiday movie season, but Dune 2 decamped for 2024 and the studios didn’t step in to replace it, so the biggest arrival of the week was the expansion of PRISCILLA (A24) from 4 theaters to 1359 with $5.1M.  That’s not a bad number […]

  OPENINGS:  ANGEL HAS FALLEN (Millenium/Lionsgate) smartly picked a weekend to open that was far enough away from Hobbs & Shaw with its larger and overlapping audience, and near enough to the end of summer to keep the competition sparse  The result was a solid $21.3M opening, almost the equal of the last franchise installment […]