OPENINGS:  WRATH OF MAN (Miramax/UA/MGM) held solidly through the weekend and emerged with $8.1M, better than Nobody‘s recent $6.8M start, and not too far below the $10.7M for Guy Ritchie’s pre-pandemic The Gentlemen.  That film ended up with $36.5M in the US, and with the relative lack of competition Wrath faces, it could also […]

  OPENINGS:  Things couldn’t have gone better for M. Night Shyamalan’s SPLIT (Blumhouse/Universal).  It built on its strong Friday with a 13% bump, extremely good for a horror movie, and is estimating $40.2M for its weekend in the US against modest production/marketing costs of about $50M, which means a healthy profit is a sure thing.  […]

> As expected, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens at #1, but Bridesmaids steals the show with an impressive second weekend. The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates now show that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides should finish its domestic run with $254 million.  Bridesmaids has been upgraded to $122 million domestic (with […]

  OPENINGS:  THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (DreamWorks/Reliance/Participant/Disney) brings to an ignominious end the distribution relationship between DreamWorks and Disney.  Their final shared title disappointed on every level, with a $5M 3-day weekend that might become $6M on Monday, and no chance of recouping its costs.  Even though the weak reviews, length and period setting worked […]

> Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), we have a photo finish for #1, with Real Steel in its second weekend probably edging opener Footloose.  As for the other openers, The Thing opened weakly, and The Big Year was a complete bomb.  After weeks of progress versus last year’s box […]

  OPENINGS:  ADRIFT (H Brothers/STX) was at the top of a very low hill with $11.5M (plus $350K in 9 overseas territories).  STX, which only has domestic rights, is claiming to be on the hook for only around $30M in limited production and marketing costs, but even at that number, it may not break even, […]

  OPENINGS:  None of the studio releasing new films this weekend had much to be happy about.  BLAIR WITCH (Lionsgate) was the top of the newcomers in the US, but with a $9.7M start, it’s low-end even by the standards of cheap horror movies, and while its $5M production budget isn’t a problem, its $40-50M […]

  OPENINGS:  As we noted on Friday, the 3-day weekend studio estimates are lower than they’d otherwise be, due to lower pre-holiday moviegoing on Saturday and especially Sunday.  That will all change on Christmas Day, which will usher in the biggest 8 days of the box office year. JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (Columbia/Sony) is […]