Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2015 now looks like $142 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above the norm for the fourth weekend of the year, which usually struggles to get above $100 million.  (See complete weekend track below.)  All credit goes to American Sniper, which is truly extraordinary. […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #32 of 2015 looks like $122 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($119 million) but still down significantly from the norm for this weekend (see track below). Opening at 3,995 theaters Friday, Fantastic Four from Fox is on track for a listless $26.2 million opening three-day […]

  OPENINGS:  INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE (20th) is the latest indication that audiences may be tiring of massive CG spectacles–which is bad news for the major studios, since they’ve concentrated most of their line-ups into that genre.  ID:R‘s $41.6M weekend is mediocre at best for a would-be blockbuster with $300M+ in worldwide costs, suggesting a US […]

  OPENINGS:  It’s still too soon to gauge whether RINGS (Paramount) can creep its way to breakeven with international help (total production/marketing costs are $75M+), but it’s certainly not performing well enough to justify a continuation of the franchise.  In the US, its $13M weekend estimate is below the $15M opening of the original US […]

  OPENINGS:  Coming into this weekend, the discussion about BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was mostly about whether with its critical raves it could exceed expectations by 20% or so and become October’s #1 opening.  But things went in the other direction, and its current $31.5M estimate doesn’t even put it in the month’s Top 20.  […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART (Warners Animation) had a solid 83% family matinee bump on Saturday, but its $34.4M weekend studio estimate is still down more than 50% from the opening of the original Lego Movie, and down 35% from The Lego Batman Movie.  (It’s considerably better than the relatively disastrous […]

  OPENINGS:  The entertainment business revolves these days around IP, but not all franchises are created equal, and there turned out to be a thunderous lack of interest in TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (Skydance/Tencent/20th/Disney/Paramount), which opened to just $29M in the US against production/marketing costs of $300M+.  A big-budget action epic in that predicament normally hopes […]

  OPENINGS:  There were no wide openings this weekend.  Limited releases included WILD MOUNTAIN THYME (Bleecker Street, also available digitally) at 450 theatres with a $223 per-theatre weekend average and a $100K total; and ARCHENEMY (RLJE, also available digitally) at 94 theatres with a $592 average and a $55K total. HOLDOVERS:  THE CROODS: A NEW […]