OPENINGS:  TOMB RAIDER (MGM/Warners) was a reboot that no one asked for, and although franchise movies aren’t star vehicles, the casting of Alicia Vikander in the lead didn’t excite anyone either.  Its $23.5M US weekend won’t get it very far in recouping $200M+ in production/marketing costs.  Things are better overseas, where Tomb Raider earned […]

  OPENINGS:  LONGLEGS (Neon) captured the zeitgeist, successfully delivering the marketing message that it was the scariest horror movie in recent memory.  The result was  a$22.6M weekend, which set a new Neon record by a wide margin, and also marked the year’s highest non-franchise start for the genre.  Production and marketing costs for Longlegs reportedly […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #43 of 2013 now looks like $95 million for the top 12 films, a shade under yesterday’s estimate but still up 11% to 17% from the same weekend in recent years. Opening at 3,336 theaters Friday, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa from Paramount grossed $12.6 million Friday and $11.5 million Saturday, […]

  OPENINGS:  THE NEW MUTANTS (20th/TSG/Disney) was DOA long before the world was engulfed by a pandemic, repeatedly postponed as first 20th and then Disney tried to figure out what to do with it.  The only reason it’s having a theatrical release at all is that 20th’s pre-Disney co-financier TSG had the contractual right to […]

>The weekend studio estimates (based on Friday and Saturday actuals and projections for Sunday) are coming in about the same as the weekend numbers posted yesterday (based on Friday actuals only).  The box office volume for the top 12 films is now looking like $146 million for the weekend, up 28% from last year’s weekend […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #15 of 2015 now looks like $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, only $1 million lower than yesterday’s estimate and still above the norm for this weekend but a touch below the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,366 theaters Friday, The Longest Ride from Fox is now on […]

>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:  HOBBS & SHAW (Universal) dropped 13% on Saturday, considerably less frontloaded than the 31% Saturday drops for the last 2 Fast & Furious titles, The Fate Of the Furious and Furious 7.  Both of those shed an additional 29-31% on their first Sundays, and Universal is optimistically assuming a mere 20% drop for […]