OPENINGS:  With the LA movie theatre market now open (at 25% capacity) and a general rise in vaccinations, the box office seems to be taking its first very tentative steps back to pre-pandemic life.  The one wide opening of the weekend THE COURIER (Roadside) wasn’t at all impressive at a $2M start, but the […]

  OPENINGS:  THE BATMAN (DC/Warners) was the first event movie to open in 3 months, and the market responded with a $128.5M weekend, the 2nd-highest of the pandemic era (although not close to Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s $260.1M start).  About $4M of that number is attributable to AMC’s new “variable pricing” policy, hiking the ticket […]

  OPENINGS:  As expected, BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (Marvel/Disney) swamped the box office worldwide.  Its $180M US weekend was below Doctor Strange 2 ($187.4M) and the original Black Panther ($202M, on a Presidents Day weekend), but still the biggest opening Hollywood has seen in 6 months, reinforcing the MCU as the center of movie culture […]

  OPENINGS:  The most hyped box office weekend of the year delivered and then some.  BARBIE (Mattel/Warners) burst into theaters with $155M, technically the best of the year (although the $146.4M for Super Mario Bros came after a Wed-Thurs start that had already brought in $58.3M).  Among the many records set by the blockbuster were […]

> Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Dolphin Tale (in its second week) moves into the #1 spot.  Look out for a boatload of TV commercials trumpeting this feat to keep the momentum going.  Not far behind is Moneyball, also in its second week, with a slightly higher weekend drop […]

Before next weekend’s arrival of a bona fide hit, The Dark Knight Rises, this weekend was highlighted by a bit of a summer movie poser: Ice Age: Continental Drift (an estimated $46.0 million opening weekend, missing our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Predictions), looking less like a summer movie that should be given a weekend […]

  The Rock’s second-worst opening is second-best at the boxoffice this slow Oscar weekend. OPENINGS:  Boosted by a 36% Saturday rise, SNITCH (Summit/Lionsgate) is projecting a $13M weekend, although like all round numbers, that one will likely come down, beginning with a “12” when final figures are released tomorrow.  The best that can be said […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #36 of 2013 now looks like $67 million for the top 12 films, a few million dollars better than yesterday’s estimate and now up slightly from the average post-Labor Day weekends the past few years. Opening at 3,107 theaters Friday, Riddick from Universal grossed $7.3 million Friday and a […]