OPENINGS:  ANT-MAN & THE WASP (Marvel/Disney) turned out to be rather front-loaded, with a 30% Saturday drop (compared to 14% for the 2nd day of Ant-Man).  That pushed the studio weekend estimate down to $76M, which is still 33% better than Ant-Man‘s debut, but at the low end for Marvel, ahead of only the […]

  OPENINGS:  WONDER WOMAN (RatPac/Wanda/Ten Cent/DC/Warners) is a big win with $100.5M in the US, and for the DC franchise, the 93% at Rotten Tomatoes may be almost as important a number.  It’s also worth noting that unusually, Warners has conservatively estimated Sunday with a 28% drop (by comparison, Guardians Vol 2, arguably with less […]

Based on Friday’s  and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #50 of 2013 looks like $139 million for the top 12 films from Friday-Sunday, not as strong as we had forecast and down $5 million from yesterday’s estimate but still up double digits in terms of percent increase over comparable weekends the past several years.   Opening at […]

  OPENINGS:  FIFTY SHADES FREED (Perfect World/Universal) declined a mild 17% from Fifty Shades Darker to $38.8M, suggesting that Freed will end up around $95M in the US  That wouldn’t be great compared to roughly $150M in production/marketing costs, but the Fifty Shades franchise has always made the bulk of its revenue overseas, and that’s […]

  OPENINGS:  The news was good and bad for POWER RANGERS (Lionsgate).  Its US opening was very solid at $40.5M (even if that number turns out to be a bit overstated, with an ambitious Sunday estimate).  But it carries at least $200M in production/marketing costs, and to reach profit, it also needs to be strong […]

  OPENINGS:  DOCTOR STRANGE (Marvel/Disney) did what a Marvel movie is supposed to do.  In the US, its $85M debut was higher than the starts of Captain America and Thor (both $65-66M), and just a hair away from the November opening of Thor 2 ($85.7M), it not quite in a league with the $94.3M for […]

  OPENINGS:  After 4 weeks of holiday movies occupying most of the market, moviegoers were ready for something new, and the beneficiary was THE UPSIDE (STX/Lantern), which substantially beat projections with a $19.6M weekend.  A 14% Saturday bump suggested strong word of mouth, and the final weekend number could go higher than the studio projection.  […]

  OPENINGS:  The only new arrival this weekend certain of profitability is THE CONJURING 2 (New Line/RatPac/Warners).  It’s already earned $40.4M in the US (just lightly behind the first Conjuring‘s $41.9M opening) and $50M in 44 overseas markets, and although horror movies and sequels are usually frontloaded, even in a worst cast scenario it will […]