The weekend looks a little softer than it did yesterday ($131 million for the top 12 films rather than $142 million).  The Hobbit is looking like an $85 million opening weekend instead of almost $99 million.   Still a record December opening weekend (beating I Am Legend’s $77.2 million opening weekend December 14-16, 2007) but not at […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #29 of 2013 looks like a decent $181 million for the top 12 films, up slightly from yesterday’s estimate and now up 3% from the average for this weekend over the past several years (but still down significantly from last year’s same weekend which was dominated by the opening of The […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2014 now looks like $97 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($94 million) and now 4% below the average for the comparable weekend the past few years. Opening at 2,753 theaters Friday, I, Frankenstein from Lionsgate/Summit grossed a tiny $2.8 million Friday […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #34 of 2014 now looks like $105 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($103 million) but still somewhat below our forecast ($111 million) and still a robust 17% above the norm for this weekend ($86 million). Opening at 2,907 theaters, If I […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #15 of 2015 now looks like $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, only $1 million lower than yesterday’s estimate and still above the norm for this weekend but a touch below the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,366 theaters Friday, The Longest Ride from Fox is now on […]

  OPENINGS:  The east coast blizzard seems to have had less effect on the weekend box office than one might have assumed, considering that all the newcomers went up from Friday to Saturday, even though they were in typically front-loaded genres.  Their studio estimates have them bunched within a narrow $825K range for the weekend, […]

  OPENINGS:  The studio-reported $28.5M weekend for Tim Burton’s MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN (TSG/20th) is below the $29.7M opening for Burton’s flop Dark Shadows.  Miss Peregrine cost less than Shadows, which will help (reportedly by about $40M), but this is still not much more than a breakeven proposition on a fairly large investment […]

  OPENINGS:  Box office receipts for Mothers Day haven’t been counted yet, but SNATCHED (TSG/20th) is assuming (probably justifiably) that it will be the holiday choice, which brings the studio’s weekend estimate to $17.5M.  That’s still 43% below the start for Trainwreck, and with roughly $125M in production/marketing costs, it’s going to be an uphill […]