OPENINGS:  Pedro Almodovar’s PARALLEL MOTHERS (Sony Classics) expanded to wide release at 684 theaters in anticipation of the Oscar nominations that are little more than a week away, but its $300K weekend translated into a per-theater average under $500. HOLDOVERS:  The lack of any new Hollywood competition was as usual good for the films […]

  OPENINGS:  LYLE LYLE CROCODILE (Columbia/Sony) arrived below expectations at $11.5M (it might reach $13.4M with the Monday holiday), unable to take advantage of the 11-week gap since the last major family movie opened.  It has more than a month until Strange World claims that audience, but even with strong holds, it still may not […]

  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 […]

  OPENINGS:  MONKEY MAN (Universal) walked an odd path to theaters, originally being targeted for a Netflix release.  While the result earned strong reviews (87% on Rotten Tomatoes), there was no storybook ending at the box office, as Dev Patel’s film was below expectations at $10.1M.  Nor did Monkey Man stir much excitement overseas, with […]

> Why did it snow on my weekend? Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Puss in Boots looks like a $34 million opening weekend.  The highly unusual late-October snowstorm in the northeast certainly reduced the opening numbers for Puss, but the weather also seemed to have a strong impact on […]

The weekend continues to look very close to the way it did yesterday morning.  Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted looks like $35.5 million, according to the studio estimate this morning (down a decent 41% from the opening weekend and hitting our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  Prometheus is looking like more like a 60% […]

With Saturday’s grosses now tallied, Weekend #4 of 2013 is looking like $88 million for the top 12 films (up significantly from the $80 million estimate yesterday but still down 13% from the comparable weekend average).   Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters now looks like a $19 million opening weekend, up from the $16 million estimate […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #34 of 2013 looks like an okay $92 million for the top 12 films, up a bit from yesterday’s estimate and now up 1% from the average for this weekend the last few years. Opening at 1,548 theaters Friday, The World’s End from Focus/Universal grossed $3.5 million Friday […]