Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #6 of 2014 now looks like $139 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a better outlook than yesterday but still 16% behind the usual pace for this weekend.  The Lego Movie is a huge hit, but the rest of the box office is providing little support. Opening […]

  OPENINGS:  The biggest arrival of the weekend is still 2 weeks away from reaching the US.  INFERNO (Columbia/Sony), the latest in the DaVinci Code/Angels & Demons franchise, opened in 53 markets comprising about 2/3 of the world with $50M.  That’s a solid start, but suggests that when the movie goes worldwide (except for France) […]

  OPENINGS:  There have been a lot of busted franchises this summer, but ANNABELLE: CREATION (New Line/Warners) held strong, with a $35M opening weekend that was down just 5% from the first Annabelle.  The new entry is considerably more frontloaded than the first, down 22% on Saturday compared to 10%, which may mean a US […]

  OPENINGS:  The stated $101M weekend start for THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2 (Lionsgate) means that we won’t really know whether it went over $100M until final numbers are released tomorrow.  But even if that number holds, it will be down 17% from last year’s Mockingjay 1.  More seriously, the international opening was $146M, […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #39 of 2013 looks like an okay $98 million for the top 12 films, up 5% from the average for the same weekend the past few years. Opening at 4,001 theaters Friday, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 from Sony grossed $9.3 million Friday and $15.2 million Saturday, now on […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #18 of 2015 now looks like $221 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down from yesterday’s estimate ($249 million) but still above the norm for this weekend as summer gets going early.  Saturday was fairly soft at the box office because of a huge day in TV sports […]

  OPENINGS:  There weren’t a lot of significant changes from Friday night’s picture of the weekend box office.  The only wide opening, ESCAPE ROOM (Columbia/Sony), inevitably fell 13% on Saturday, considering its genre and its unusually early Thursday afternoon start.  Nevertheless, the $18M studio weekend estimate should stand up, and that’s a solid number for […]

  OPENINGS:  The news was good and bad for POWER RANGERS (Lionsgate).  Its US opening was very solid at $40.5M (even if that number turns out to be a bit overstated, with an ambitious Sunday estimate).  But it carries at least $200M in production/marketing costs, and to reach profit, it also needs to be strong […]