OPENINGS:  Even though THE DISASTER ARTIST (A24) was at just 840 theatres, its $6.4M weekend had no trouble topping its woeful newcomer competition.  That total (which may come down a bit in finals, because A24 tends to be optimistic in its Sunday estimates) translated into a $7700 per-theatre weekend average, notably better than the […]

  OPENINGS:  Disney is the land where dreams come true, but not even their wizards could have imagined the scale of BLACK PANTHER (Marvel/Disney), which has crashed through all expectations–not just as a big-budget action film that exists almost completely in an African universe, but as a solo character superhero debut in general.  Current studio […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LION KING (Disney) was expected to be the crown jewel in Disney’s recreations of its animated classics, and despite sharply mixed reviews, it delivered with a $185M opening weekend–and that studio estimate includes a fairly conservative number for Sunday, so it could go higher in finals.  If it stays at $185M, it […]

  OPENINGS:  The SAUSAGE PARTY (Annapurna/Columbia/Sony) audience was somewhat frontloaded, with a 16% Saturday decline, but the weekend total of $33.6M was still outstanding, the best starring debut for Seth Rogen since the original Neighbors, and higher than the $33M 5-day opening for This Is The End (which opened on a Wednesday).  There’s certainly nothing […]

  OPENINGS:  Word of mouth caught up with THE EMOJI MOVIE (Columbia/Sony) on Saturday, with a 14% drop (by comparison, Captain Underpants rose 11% on its 2d day of release, and last year’s Angry Birds Movie jumped 47%), but a $25.7M weekend is still good money for a movie no one seems to like.  (The […]

  OPENINGS:  Although BLUE BEETLE (DC/Warners) won the weekend over a tiring Barbie, it landed at the low end of expectations with $25.4M–and given the heavy 15% Friday-to-Saturday drop (much steeper than the 4%/6% drops for the Shazam movies), not to mention the Sunday West Coast weather, that studio estimate may be optimistic.  The international […]

  OPENINGS:  GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (Legendary/Warners) didn’t have the Saturday bump that Kong: Skull Island enjoyed, instead dropping 17%, which was slightly worse even than the first Godzilla‘s 16%.  The result was a $49M US weekend, and a US total that may only reach $125M.  Although the numbers overseas were bigger, they were […]

  OPENINGS:  JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (Legendary/Perfect World/Universal) is claiming a round-number $150M US opening (actually $150.001M, which is cute), a number that relies on an extremely strong Sunday projection.  If it goes down by a million or two tomorrow in finals, it won’t be a meaningful change except for PR purposes, and the result […]