OPENINGS:  WINCHESTER (CBS/Lionsgate) didn’t benefit from having the weekend to itself, with a $9.3M opening that was undistinguished even by the standards of low-budget horror Super Bowl Weekend arrivals.  (The Messengers: $14.7M, Rings:  $13M, Darkness Falls:  $12M, The Uninvited: $10.3M, to name a few.)  It might reach $20M or so in the US, which […]

  VENOM (Tencent/Columbia/Sony) easily set a new October opening record with a studio-reported $80M weekend, far ahead of Gravity‘s $55.8M.  However, Venom dropped 19% on Saturday, worse than Thor: The Dark World (1% increase), Doctor Strange (4% drop) and even Justice League (15% drop), although certainly far better than the 38%/41% plunges for Batman v. […]

  OPENINGS:  THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 (Illumination/Universal) had a better launch than this weekend’s other big arrival, but it was a major box office disappointment in its own right.  The $47.1M weekend was down 55% from the first Pets just 3 years ago, and although Pets 2 will likely hit profit thanks to […]

  This was the weekend that the COVID-19 crisis hit the box office in earnest, and while that fact pales in importance compared to the human cost of the pandemic, it’s going to represent a multi-billion dollar hit that will reverberate through the lives of many throughout the world.  As bad as the numbers below […]

  OPENINGS:  The only new arrival in wide US release was the woebegone VOYAGERS (Lionsgate), which got a minimal push from its studio and opened at a low $1.4M, fated for $5M or so in the US. The major new international opening was MORTAL KOMBAT (Warners), which brought in $10.7M from 17 territories.  It opens […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LOST CITY (Paramount) opened at the high end of expectations at $31M, a particularly solid result these days for a movie that skews both female and older (the latter crowd evident in the 2% Friday-to-Saturday rise).  Lost City faces little challenge in its target demo for the next month, so it could […]

  OPENINGS:  VIOLENT NIGHT (Universal) slightly overperformed with $13.3M in the US, and with its $20M production budget, it may be headed for breakeven or perhaps moderate profit.  However, worldwide marketing costs are likely to add another $40M+ to that tally, and the thriller had much less appeal overseas, with $7.1M in 72 territories. The […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (Universal) stirred little interest from critics or audiences, and set sail with a flat $6.5M.  It hasn’t yet opened overseas, but will have a difficult time trying to recoup $100M or so in production/marketing costs. The tiny JULES (Bleecker Street) launched for some reason at 780 theaters, […]