Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #44 of 2014 looks like $82 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 33% the norm for this weekend ($123 million), which admittedly does not usually have Halloween ruining it by falling on Friday. Opening at 2,766 theaters, Nightcrawler from Open Road Films grossed $3.2 million Friday and $4.7 million […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #24 of 2015 now looks like $264 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a touch lower than yesterday’s estimate ($269 million) but still well above the norm for this weekend into record territory.   Opening at 4,274 theaters Friday, Jurassic World from Universal is now on track for a $204.6 million opening […]

  OPENINGS:  On such a razor-thin margin, the standings could change tomorrow with final numbers, but for now, THE BOSS (Universal) has the weekend edge with $23.48M, barely a nose ($45K) ahead of those creaky superheroes.  Bragging rights are nice, but even if it falls behind on Monday, this is still a win for The […]

  OPENINGS:  The Saturday hold for DUNKIRK (Warners) wasn’t as strong as those for other Christopher Nolan non-sequels, down 11% where Inception stayed steady, and Interstellar actually rose 8%, pushing the weekend studio estimate to $50.5M.  Nevertheless, that’s a terrific start for a film that was far from a sure thing as a summer blockbuster.  […]

  OPENINGS:  Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD (Columbia/Sony) had a 21% Saturday drop, indicating a fair amount of frontloading, but studio estimates have it reaching its goal at $40.4M for the weekend, setting a new record for the filmmaker by topping Inglourious Basterds‘ $38.1M.  (However, Basterds opened in the era before opening […]

  OPENINGS:  We had a new wide release this weekend, and THE WAR WITH GRANDPA (101) managed a win over the weary Tenet with $3.6M.  That’s certainly not a number that would make anyone feel good in non-pandemic times, and since War With Grandpa had a semblance of a national marketing campaign, it’s not at […]

  OPENINGS:  The limits of the pandemic-era box office, not to mention the historically lowest-grossing holiday weekend of the year, were tossed aside by the super powers of the MCU, as SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE 10 RINGS (Marvel/Disney) obliterated the previous Labor Day weekend record ($26.4M/$30.6M for the 2007 edition of Halloween) with […]

  OPENINGS:  Considering that DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW AGE (Focus/Universal) is something like a fresh MCU chapter for the older female audience, the fact that the sequel opened at $16M despite solid reviews–a painful 48% drop from the first theatrical entry in the franchise just 3 years ago–is a sobering sign that this demo just […]