Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #28 of 2015 looks like $204 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, above the norm for this weekend and way above last year’s weak weekend. Opening at 4,301 theaters Friday, Minions from Universal is on track for a $115.2 million opening three-day weekend (a little lower than yesterday’s outlook but still […]

> Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), The Lion King is holding on to the #1 spot, but Moneyball and Dolphin Tale are very close behind (both just over $20 million for the weekend).  The weekend overall is now looking like it will be up a strong 20% from this weekend last year.    […]

  OPENINGS:  The 3-day weekend in the US went narrowly to MEG 2: THE TRENCH (CMC/Warners) with $30M.  That was down more than 1/3 from the $45.4M start for The Meg in 2018, which would ordinarily be concerning for a film with $250M in production/marketing costs, but Meg 2 overperformed internationally even more strongly than […]

  OPENINGS:  HAPPY DEATH DAY (Blumhouse/Universal) opened so well at $26.5M that inevitably, despite the fact that it appears to tell a completely closed-end story, talk of a franchise has started.  You can’t blame them:  Death Day isn’t quite at the blockbuster level of Blumhouse’s Split ($40M) or Get Out ($33.4M), but it’s starting better […]

  OPENINGS:  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney) had a solid Saturday hold for a blockbuster, down 9% on its 2d full day of release.  That compares to the performance of the Iron Man sequels, respectively down 11% and 10%, and much better than Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s 33% plunge, although a tad less […]

>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 $117 million for the weekend, up 14% from last year’s weekend […]

  OPENINGS:  LET HIM GO (Focus/Universal) had a more substantial marketing campaign than most recent arrivals, and it seemed to benefit modestly from the added resources with a $4.1M weekend, the same start that Honest Thief had a few weeks ago. In limited release, THE DARK AND THE WICKED (RLJE) opened with $65K at 68 […]

  OPENINGS:  Early January is a potent slot for horror movies, and M3GAN (Blumhouse/Universal) kicked off the year with a strong $30.2M, essentially the same as last year’s $30M for the rebooted Scream, despite all the franchise value of the latter (Scream also had the advantage of opening over the month’s holiday weekend).  M3gan has […]