OPENINGS: As studio greenlight and release strategies continue to morph, one thing that’s clear is that there will never be a shortage of low-budget horror movies.  SMILE (Paramount) is the latest successful arrival with $22M, following such recent releases as Barbarian, The Invitation, Pearl, and The Black Phone.  Although Smile will have to face […]

  Note:  Holdover titles tended to decline less than usual because comparisons include last week’s Easter Sunday. OPENINGS:  BORN IN CHINA (Disney) was at the top of an unimpressive group of debuts this weekend with $5.1M, narrowly ahead of the $4.6M for Monkey Kingdom, the last in the studio’s “Disneynature” series of Earth Day wildlife […]

  OPENINGS:  After an October built on blockbusters that had been held off the market for more than a year, Thanksgiving weekend served as a reminder (to all except those paid to tout box office totals) that the theatrical release business continues to be far from recovered in the lingering Covid world.  Overall business was […]

  OPENINGS:  With the latest MCU extravaganza waiting in the wings, Hollywood studios kept their wares out of the market, and the only arrival was the latest Liam Neeson vehicle (incredibly, he’s had 6 films in release since Covid hit), this one entitled MEMORY (Open Road).  It launched with $3.1M, very similar to February’s Blacklight, […]

  OPENINGS:  There was a barely-wide opening for OUR FRIEND (Gravitas, also on VOD) at 543 theatres with a $250K weekend that translated into a quiet per-theatre average of $460. HOLDOVERS:  THE MARKSMAN (Open Road) dipped 35% in its 2nd weekend to $2M (by comparison,  Liam Neeson’s prior vehicle Honest Thief dropped 43% in Weekend […]

>Transformers 3 is looking like a $97.4 million opening weekend (Friday-Sunday only) and $162 million through Sunday.  The three-day number is a record July 4th weekend showing.  What about Larry Crowne?  From an interview at Boxofficemagazine.com Tom Hanks said, “How do we compete in the marketplace?  Forgive me, I haven’t the slightest fu*king idea….  At […]

  OPENINGS:  ALADDIN (Disney) will probably be in the top half-dozen Memorial Day openings when Monday brings it to $105M or so (the 3-day total is $86.1M).  Compared to other Disney live-action reboots of animated hits, though, it had a subpar 5% drop on Saturday (The Jungle Book gained 28% on its 2nd day of […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #35 of 2015 now looks like $69 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well below the norm for this weekend and reaching into record low territory (see track below). Opening at 1,135 theaters Friday, War Room from Sony is on track for a $11.0 million opening three-day weekend (double our $5.5 million ShowBuzzDaily […]