OPENINGS:  CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG (Nickelodeon/Paramount, also on Paramount+) opened on Wednesday and earned $22M over 5 days, $16.4M of it over the weekend.  That’s somewhat above the $13.1M start for Paw Patrol, which was also simultaneously released on Paramount+ and opened on a Friday.  Paw Patrol totaled $40.1M in the US, and […]

  OPENINGS:  WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING (Columbia/Sony) launched with $17M, ahead of (low) expectations, and fueled by an audience of women in the midwest/south.  There’s no direct competition in sight, and it should be able to leg out past $50M in the US, which would be considered a win for the moderately-budgeted production.  Crawdads may […]

  OPENINGS:  Despite a bounty of new titles, nothing touched the holdover at the top of the weekend box office.  The newcomer with the closest claim to “success” in the US was THE POPE’S EXORCIST (Screen Gems/Sony), with $9.2M.  The horror movie also reported $27.4M in overseas release, which would put it on a road […]

  OPENINGS:  The traditional horror movie start of the new year was provided by NIGHT SWIM (Blumhouse-Atomic Planet/Universal), although at $12M it was the lowest such arrival since The Grudge started with $11.4M in 2020.  The final number for that one was $21.2M, and Night Swim probably won’t be much higher.  The international launch was […]

OPENINGS:  TERRIFIER 3 (Cineverse) broke through to a mainstream audience with an $18.3M weekend, which is more than the entire $10.6M run of 2022’s Terrifier 2 (that one’s highest weekend was $1.9M).  The new entry in the unrated, ultra-violent slasher series accomplished this with not just a low production budget, but reportedly a miniscule amount […]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), the total box office for this weekend is now looking like $151 million, up 2% from last year.  Saturday business (impacted by New Year’s Eve) was not as rough as expected and the studio projections are now fairly rosy, as they are expecting a […]

  No great disconnects between Saturday’s estimates and Sunday’s, although one number needs some scrutiny. OPENINGS:  RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) was at the top of the new arrivals, but with a very disappointing $24M weekend ($32.6M over 5 days).  At that rate, it’s going to have to struggle to hold onto its theatres […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #26 of 2013 now looks like $185 million for the top 12 films, up a bit from yesterday’s $181 million estimate and still very close to the same weekend in recent years.   Opening at 3,181 theaters Friday, The Heat from 20th Century Fox grossed $13.6 million Friday and $14.3 million […]