Based on Friday’s grosses, the final weekend of 2013 looks like a great finish: $186 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down a touch from yesterday’s estimate but still up significantly from the same weekend last year (see comparisons to previous years at the bottom).  The new films this long weekend are actually not […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #32 of 2014 still looks like a very good $173 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above our forecast ($152 million) and 26% above the norm for this weekend ($138 million). Opening at 3,845 theaters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Paramount grossed $25.6 million through Friday and $22.1 […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #12 of 2015 looks like $123 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than it looked yesterday but still below the norms for this weekend.   Opening at 3,875 theaters Friday, Insurgent from Lionsgate/Summit is on track for a $54.0 million opening three-day weekend (better than yesterday’s estimate and […]

  OPENINGS:  DON’T BREATHE (Screen Gems/Sony) had an unusually strong Saturday for a horror movie, down just 1% from Friday (which, remember, these days includes Thursday night).  By way of comparison, Lights Out fell 22% on its 2d day of release.  That propelled Don’t Breathe to an exceptional $26.1M weekend, the biggest opening for a […]

  OPENINGS:  We’ll find out tomorrow if the studio’s $100.2M US weekend estimate for THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (Universal), which counts on an influx of post-church Easter Sunday Christians, will slip into double figures.  But even if the number holds, it’s down 32% from the Furious 7 opening.  If Universal’s hypothesis that this decline […]

  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:  CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (Disney) led the newcomers with $25M (as is always the case with studio estimates that barely exceed a round number, that may decline in finals tomorrow), 16% better than Disney’s debut of Pete’s Dragon in August 2016.  However, the films had different trajectories, with Robin down 9% on Saturday, while Dragon […]

  OPENINGS:  LITTLE (Legendary/Universal) led the weekend’s weak crop of newcomers with $15.5M, buoyed by a 15% Saturday bump.  That’s about 15% below the recent opening of What Men Want, which was aimed at a somewhat older audience, and suggests an OK $45M US total.  It had a limited overseas opening in 11 markets, where […]