OPENINGS:  It was only 20 years into their career, with 2007’s No Country For Old Men ($74.3M in the US) that Joel and Ethan Coen began to be considered box office forces, and even after that, only True Grit (their biggest hit at $171.2M) even matched No Country.  All of which is by way […]

  OPENINGS:  THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (DreamWorks/Reliance/Universal) didn’t have much of a Saturday bump, rising just 2% (that compares to 15% for the 2d day of Gone Girl), suggesting that word of mouth is less than stellar.  The result was a $24.7M weekend that was lower than originally anticipated, and early international results of […]

  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 […]

  OPENINGS:  THE INVISIBLE MAN (Blumhouse/Universal) had a 12% Saturday bump, evidence of extremely strong word of mouth in the horror genre (among recent uncommonly leggy horror releases, Get Out rose 17% on its 2nd day of release, and A Quiet Place was up 1%).  That brought it to a strong $29M weekend, and with […]

  OPENINGS:  NOBODY (Universal) had a fair start at $6.7M, better than the $4.1M opening for Let Him Go and the $3.1M for The Marksman.  Following the Universal pattern it will hit premium VOD after 2 more weekends, and may hope to reach $20M in US theatres.  Overseas, it launched with $5M. The much bigger […]

  OPENINGS:  Despite being limited to 2 Saturday shows at 803 theaters, the (tape-delayed) live concert movie BTS: PERMISSION TO DANCE (Trafalgar) earned $6.8M at the US box office.  Even with an average $35 ticket price, that’s an impressive achievement, and the international result was even more remarkable at $25.8M.  This was the highest-grossing movie […]

  OPENINGS:  The $9M start for THE MENU (Searchlight/Disney) was below the $10.1M launch of Barbarian–and The Menu cost about $20M more to produce.  Combine that with the fact that The Menu is really more of a very dark satire than a horror movie, and its prospects look questionable.  The film also opened in 36 […]

  OPENINGS:  After last week’s Barbenheimer fireworks, the box office for new movies returned to earth–with a thud in the case of HAUNTED MANSION (Disney), which was at the bottom of projections at $24.2M.  With the exception of Guardians 3, it’s been a tepid summer for Disney, and Haunted Mansion carries production/marketing costs in the […]