OPENINGS:  THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER (Blumhouse/Morgan Creek/Universal) was at the low end of expectations with $27.2M, and it was also below projections internationally with $17.9M in 52 markets.  It’s hard to tell just what this means in terms of the bottom line, because while a $125M worldwide total wouldn’t look terrible against $30M in production […]

  OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS ONE (Hasbro/Paramount) underdelivered vs projections by about 20%, and its dim $25M start didn’t even give it the weekend’s #1 ranking at the box office.  Paramount was taking a calculated risk by rebooting the franchise via PG-rated animation, and it doesn’t seem to have worked out.  It faces direct competition next weekend […]

  OPENINGS:  There’s some inconsistency in the way the weekend numbers for JUJUTSU KEISEN 0 (Crunchyroll) are being reported, with some outlets using the $17.7M figure that includes pre-Friday shows, and others using the $14.8M that begins the count on Friday itself.  For better or worse, the convention these days is to roll what are […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #46 of 2014 looks like $135 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up from yesterday’s estimate ($128 million) but still down 29% the norm for this weekend ($191 million) but up (+13%) from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,154 theaters, Dumb and Dumber To from Universal grossed $14.2 […]

  OPENINGS:  Even though THE DISASTER ARTIST (A24) was at just 840 theatres, its $6.4M weekend had no trouble topping its woeful newcomer competition.  That total (which may come down a bit in finals, because A24 tends to be optimistic in its Sunday estimates) translated into a $7700 per-theatre weekend average, notably better than the […]

>Cars 2 is looking like a $68 million opening weekend now, lower than the estimate based on Friday’s numbers but very close to the initial ShowBuzzDaily forecast.  Bad Teacher is looking like a solid $31 million for the R-rated comedy.  The weekend is now looking like 10% higher than the same weekend in 2010, a […]

  STAR WARS:  Whether one considers Avatar‘s proper US all-time box office record to be $749.8M (initial release) or $760.5M (includes “director’s cut” re-release), the crown will be changing hands in the next few days.  STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Lucasfilm/Disney), which declined 41% on its 3rd weekend to $88.3M (setting yet another record by […]

  OPENINGS:  OVERBOARD (MGM/Pantelion/Lionsgate) opened in 45% more theatres than Eugenio Derbez’s How To Be A Latin Lover, and had a weekend that was 20% higher at $14.8M.  That’s not the cross-cultural breakout hit that the studio and Derbez had in mind, although an eventual $40M in the US will likely provide a modest profit […]