OPENINGS:  THE NEW MUTANTS (20th/TSG/Disney) was DOA long before the world was engulfed by a pandemic, repeatedly postponed as first 20th and then Disney tried to figure out what to do with it.  The only reason it’s having a theatrical release at all is that 20th’s pre-Disney co-financier TSG had the contractual right to […]

  OPENINGS:  As we had forecast on Friday night, the margin of victory for the weekend box office was razor-thin, and we won’t really know who won until final numbers are released tomorrow.  For now, HIDDEN FIGURES (20th) is $172K below Rogue One at $21.8M, but Disney’s Rogue One projection relies on a speculatively strong […]

  OPENINGS:  ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (TriStar/Sony) continued its frontloaded box office swoon, with a 28% Sunday drop and probably another 25% today (the Monday number will likely be 75% below what the movie earned on opening day).  Despite more than doubling the Friday box office of The Butler, it will end up losing […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #45 of 2014 now looks like $149 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, still up 7% the norm for this weekend ($140 million) but lower than it appeared yesterday ($154 million) and now down -7% from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,761 theaters, Big Hero […]

  OPENINGS:  DUNE (Legendary/Warners, also on HBO Max) launched in US theaters at $40.1M, the highest start for a film also premiering on HBO Max.  (And while Warners had previously preserved Thursday night for theatrical-only, the studio allowed Dune to hit HBO Max nationwide simultaneous with its first East Coast screenings.)  The film should also […]

  OPENINGS:  Both of the weekend’s R-rated arrivals had fair Saturday bumps, reflecting their older audiences.  However, that’s also the demo for Oscar viewing, so we’ll see if their Sunday estimates are overly optimistic.  For now, RED SPARROW (TSG/20th) is at $17M for the weekend after its 12% Saturday climb, a mediocre total for a […]

The weekend looks a little softer than it did yesterday ($131 million for the top 12 films rather than $142 million).  The Hobbit is looking like an $85 million opening weekend instead of almost $99 million.   Still a record December opening weekend (beating I Am Legend’s $77.2 million opening weekend December 14-16, 2007) but not at […]

  OPENINGS:  We won’t really know the order of the weekend’s closely-bunched Top 3 movies until final numbers are released tomorrow, but since the default position of any studio with a new opening is to claim victory, the fact that AMERICAN MADE (Cross Creek/Universal) is currently in 2nd place with $17M can’t be a good […]