OPENINGS:  LIGHTYEAR (Pixar/Disney) was a tricky attempt to extend the hugely lucrative Toy Story franchise, both a prequel and a spinoff that featured a different version of the titular character than the one audiences have loved for decades.  Disney didn’t manage to convince fans that it was essential viewing, and the result was a […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #19 of 2015 looks like a wobbly $120 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($117 million) but still well below the norm for this weekend. Opening at 3,003 theaters Friday, Hot Pursuit from Warner Brothers is now on track for a $13.3 million opening three-day weekend […]

  OPENINGS:  The 18-34 audience that now defines theatrical distribution in the US showed up for SCREAM (Skyglass/Paramount), propelling the reboot to $30.6M for the 3-day weekend and $35M for the 4-day holiday.  Reportedly, that demo was responsible for 2/3 of all tickets sold for Scream, a fact that won’t be ignored as studios plan […]

  OPENINGS:  PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING (Legendary/Universal) pulled in a family audience on Saturday, giving it a 3% bump, while the first Pacific Rim had dropped 13% on its 2nd day of release.  That pushed Uprising‘s weekend to $28M, still down 25% from the original’s start.  The US result for Uprising, however, is almost an afterthought, […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #29 of 2013 looks like a decent $181 million for the top 12 films, up slightly from yesterday’s estimate and now up 3% from the average for this weekend over the past several years (but still down significantly from last year’s same weekend which was dominated by the opening of The […]

There was enough product at the multiplexes to make for a solid Thanksgiving weekend total, but holiday fireworks were absent. OPENINGS:  THE GOOD DINOSAUR (Pixar/Disney) had a $39.2M weekend ($55.6M since its Wednesday opening), putting it behind Frozen ($67.4M), Toy Story 2 ($57.4M) and Tangled ($48.8M) among Thanksgiving openings.  It continues to run closest to […]

  OPENINGS:  There wasn’t any good news for this week’s wide releases, and that began with the weekend’s leader, as THE FLASH (DC/Warners) failed to meet even the lowest expectations with a sluggish $55.1M start.  (The studio’s 4-day estimate, including the Monday Juneteenth holiday, was an optimistic $64M.)  The 3-day total was significantly lower than […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #11 of 2014 looks like $102 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a few million dollars lower than yesterday’s estimate and now slightly below the box office volume for a typical weekend in the middle of March.  Two new wide releases opened softly Friday and were even […]