Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #26 of 2014 now looks like $171 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, very close to yesterday’s estimate ($172 million) and 10% below the norm for this weekend and 6% below the same weekend last year as the lackluster summer 2014 rolls on.   Opening at 4,233 […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is the updated 2015 Scorecard, with Universal pulling into a very close second place (just behind Warner Brothers) thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey.  This performance from Focus and Universal is the first bit of good news in a long time for the hapless Comcast corporation, as its proposed acquisition of […]

  OPENINGS:  PAN (RatPac-Dune/Warners) now owns a dubious place in box office history, as one of Hollywood’s biggest flops ever.  On a production/worldwide marketing cost that will exceed $300M, its $15.5M US opening makes John Carter ($30.2M), Battleship ($25.5M), The Lone Ranger ($29.2M), and this year’s Tomorrowland ($33M), Fantastic Four ($25.7M) and even Jupiter Ascending ($18.4M) […]

  OPENINGS:  SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO (Black Label/Columbia/Sony) had a modest $19M start, which was better than the first Sicario‘s $12.1M (in October, after 2 weeks of limited release), but perhaps not by enough to justify the pricetag of opening in the crowded summer marketplace.  (Note that the risk here is Black Label’s, since […]

  OPENINGS:  CAPTAIN MARVEL (Marvel/Disney) launched with $455M worldwide, the highest superhero intro movie ever (although not all the titles in that category opened in China on their first weekend).  In the US, its $153M total was #2 behind Black Panther, which had the advantage of a holiday weekend Sunday.  Captain Marvel declined 14% on […]

  OPENINGS:  KNIVES OUT (MRC/Lionsgate) scored a victory for non-IP, adult-oriented filmmaking with a strong $27M over the 3-day weekend ($41.7M since Wednesday), and although December box office can be tough to predict, with a plunge expected next weekend and then the arrival of multiple presumptive blockbusters, Knives Out seems to be on track for […]

  HOLDOVERS:  Once again, there were no significant openings this week.  And once again, the lack of competition didn’t help WW84 (DC/Warners, also on HBO Max), which had the worst hold of the top titles, down 46% to $3M.  It now seems unlikely to get much past $40M in the US, and it’s no longer […]

  A few notes:  this week’s newcomers opened along a range of dates, including Tuesday night, Wednesday, Friday night and Saturday, and those scheduling decisions had an affect on the totals below.  Also, the fact that Friday was Christmas Eve lowered the day’s ticket sales, probably by 30% or so.  (Something similar will apply to […]