OPENINGS: KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (MARV/20th) took the weekend, but at $39M it was below Fox’s minimal target number of $40M.  Since sequels burn out faster than initial films in a series, Golden Circle will probably end up around $100-120M in the US, compared to $128M for The Secret Service, and that’s on higher […]

  OPENINGS:  ETERNALS (Marvel/Disney) opened at the low end of expectations with $71M, not a surprise given its lousy reviews (48% on Rotten Tomatoes, unprecedented for the MCU) and blah audience exit polls.  Even so, that makes it the #4 US opening of the pandemic era, and all of those quartet members are Marvel movies.  […]

  OPENINGS:  Here’s the crazy thing about the official record-busting $238M weekend estimate for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (Lucasfilm/Disney), which smashed the previous weekend record by more than 12%, and nearly tripled the prior December record:  it’s on the conservative side.  Flying in the face of most studio behavior in reporting opening weekends, Disney […]

  OPENINGS:  This was supposed to be the kick-off weekend for the holiday movie season, but Dune 2 decamped for 2024 and the studios didn’t step in to replace it, so the biggest arrival of the week was the expansion of PRISCILLA (A24) from 4 theaters to 1359 with $5.1M.  That’s not a bad number […]

  OPENINGS:  CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Color Force/SK Global/Warners) had a strong 42% Saturday bump, an especially bright sign for a film that might have been expected to play as front-loaded for a niche audience.  That pushed its weekend to $25.2M, with a total of $34M since its Wednesday opening.  It was just slightly below the […]

Based on Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #11 of 2013 is now looking strictly mediocre.  Yesterday it appeared that the weekend would be up slightly from the same weekend in past years, but now it is down slightly from previous years.  Oz remains the only real draw at the box office (now headed for over $250 million […]

  OPENINGS:  DESPICABLE ME 4 (Illumination/Universal) arrived at the high end of expectations with a $75M 3-day weekend and $122.6M since its July 3 opening.  That was a tad below 2013’s Despicable Me 2, which also opened on a Wednesday July 3 with $83.5M/$143.1M.  Despicable 4 should pass $300M in the US, which would put […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2014 now looks like $97 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($94 million) and now 4% below the average for the comparable weekend the past few years. Opening at 2,753 theaters Friday, I, Frankenstein from Lionsgate/Summit grossed a tiny $2.8 million Friday […]