Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #41 of 2013 looks like an okay $109 million for the top 12 films, down 10% from last year’s comparable weekend and down a nominal 2% from the average for the same weekend the past few years. Opening at 3,874 theaters Friday, Captain Phillips from Sony Pictures grossed $8.5 million Friday […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #12 of 2014 looks like $133 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, very similar to the same weekend last year (up 2%) but 7% below the average for this weekend the past several years (which is heavily weighted by the enormous opening for The Hunger Games this […]

  OPENINGS:  Beyonce’s concert documentary RENAISSANCE (Variance/AMC Theaters) led the traditionally slow first weekend of December with $21M, a shadow of the $92.8M for the Eras Tour movie a couple of months ago, but within expectations.  As with Eras Tour, it’s likely that the Renaissance box office will be front-loaded with fans, so the US […]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Immortals ($32 million) will beat Jack and Jill ($26 million).  Keep in mind Immortals is playing on many fewer theaters than the Adam Sandler comedy and has a much better per theater number.  J. Edgar is playing at even fewer theaters and has the […]

  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:  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 […]

>The weekend studio estimates (based on Friday and Saturday actuals and projections for Sunday) are coming in slightly above the weekend numbers posted yesterday (based on Friday actuals only).  The box office volume for the top 12 films is now looking like $100 million for the weekend, down 31% from last year’s weekend and down […]

  OPENINGS:  BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (Regency/20th) is claiming a round-number $50M weekend, but even if that drifts down a bit in final numbers, it’s still a huge win.  The box office was steady from Friday to Saturday, which indicates a wide range of audience and strong word of mouth, and it has plenty of open road […]