OPENINGS:  With little else new around, DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO (Crunchyroll/Sony) seized the weekend with $20.1M, a bit lower than the studio’s Dragon Slayer: Mugen Train, which opened with $21.2M at about half the number of theaters.  Dragon Ball, like most anime titles, was heavily skewed to the M18-34 audience, and it may […]

  OPENINGS:  FAST X (Universal) arrived with $67.5M.  In the US, that was slightly below the $70M for F9, one of the first big-ticket movies to brave a wide pandemic-era release in May 2021.  In terms of the franchise as a whole (leaving aside spinoff Hobbes & Shaw), Fast X was the 7th highest of […]

  OPENINGS:  DUNE: PART TWO (Legendary/Warners) landed at the high end of projections with $81.5M.  Comparisons with the 2021 Dune have little meaning, since that film was part of the studio’s controversial year of premiering simultaneously in theaters and via streaming, but compared to recent blockbusters, Dune 2 was below Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania […]

  OPENINGS:  A $34.1M US launch for a movie that reportedly carries about $350M in production and marketing costs likely means a nine-figure loss in theatrical release, which traditionally is considered less than desirable.  But the ways of Box Office Magical Thinking are infinite (and the number of pundits willing to parrot such spin similarly […]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 will drop 70% this weekend but remain at #1, and its final domestic estimate has been upgraded to over $300 million because the second weekend drop could have been even worse.  The Muppets opened decently in second place […]

Based on Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #52 is now on pace for $168 million, very similar to the outlook yesterday.  However, Django Unchained and Les Miserables continue to move in opposite directions.   Yesterday, it looked like both films would be around $29 million for the weekend (with Les Mis only $400,000 behind Django).  But based […]

  On Sunday mornings, the devout go to church, and movie studios lie.  (There’s not much overlap between the two groups.)  The studios lie (or fudge, if you’re sensitive about the L Word), fundamentally, because they can get away with it:  when “estimated” box office returns are announced on Sunday mornings, they’re simply repeated–one might […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #37 of 2014 looks like $79 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, only 5% below the norm for this weekend ($83 million). Opening at 2,175 theaters, No Good Deed from Sony/Screen Gems grossed $8.8 million Friday and a solid $9.8 million Saturday, now on track for a $24.7 million opening three-day weekend (well […]