OPENINGS:  The biggest noise of the weekend by far was made outside the US, where CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (Marvel/Disney) began its global campaign, and earned $200.2M in 63 territories comprising about two-thirds of the international terrain (not including China and Russia, among others).  Disney has made it clear that that this is an […]

  OPENINGS:  For ROGUE ONE (Lucasfilm/Disney), massive success was taken for granted, and the question was how big a standalone spin-off entry in the Star Wars canon could be.  The answer is pretty damn big:  its $155M US opening weekend is the 12th highest ever, and #3 for the year (behind $179.1M for Captain America: […]

  OPENINGS:  HOBBS & SHAW (Universal) dropped 13% on Saturday, considerably less frontloaded than the 31% Saturday drops for the last 2 Fast & Furious titles, The Fate Of the Furious and Furious 7.  Both of those shed an additional 29-31% on their first Sundays, and Universal is optimistically assuming a mere 20% drop for […]

  OPENINGS:  We’re starting to get a feel for what this pandemic box office looks like, absent big-studio blockbusters.  This week’s HONEST THIEF (Open Road) opened at $3.7M in 2425 theatres (a weekend per-theatre $1525 average), just about the same as last week’s The War With Grandpa, even though they’re in completely different genres.  Honest […]

  OPENINGS:  DEAR EVAN HANSEN (Universal) clunked badly with a $7.5M debut, following on the heels of the underperforming In the Heights and underlining that while musicals can score at the box office, they remain a risky genre.  Even with a relatively low production cost and limited marketing, it’s hard to see any path to […]

  OPENINGS:  Although TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Paramount) is a 36-years-later sequel, the franchise that it really represents is Tom Cruise unto himself.  The last true Hollywood megastar brought in a massive audience that was mostly older men and between the coasts, to the tune of $124M for the 3-day weekend and $151M including Monday, making […]

  OPENINGS:  There was no question that  ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA (Marvel/Disney) would dominate Presidents Day weekend and become 2023’s first blockbuster.  Its $104M 3-day weekend (projected to reach $118M including Monday) was in line with expectations.  The film’s decent 2.26 Friday-to-weekend multiplier also demonstrated that, at least in the short term, the MCU is […]

  OPENINGS:  This was supposed to be the kick-off weekend for the holiday movie season, but Dune 2 decamped for 2024 and the studios didn’t step in to replace it, so the biggest arrival of the week was the expansion of PRISCILLA (A24) from 4 theaters to 1359 with $5.1M.  That’s not a bad number […]