Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #27 of 2013 still looks like a terrific $223 million for the top 12 films, up sharply from the comparable weekend in recent years. Not even The Lone Ranger could derail a hot summer box office, which is up 30% or more in three of the last four […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #3 of 2014 now looks like $160 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, even better than it looked yesterday and now 47% above the average for the comparable weekend the past few years. Opening at 2,663 theaters Friday, Ride Along from Universal grossed $14.5 million Friday and $16.7 million Saturday, […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  No change in the studio rankings this week with no studio increasing more than $100 million over the past 7 days worldwide.  Fox’s modest gain this week comes mostly from the domestic potential for Let’s Be Cops and continued overseas grosses for How to Train Your Dragon 2.  Disney’s weekly gain is mostly a function of […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #14 of 2015 looks like $215 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, way above the norms for this weekend and setting a new record for early April. Opening at 4,004 theaters Friday, Furious 7 from Universal is now on track for a $143.6 million opening three-day weekend (down slightly from […]

  OPENINGS:  RIDE ALONG 2 (Universal) is projecting a $39.5M 4-day weekend, 19% below the $48.6M opening of the first Ride Along exactly 2 years ago.  That would put its US trajectory at $100-110M, enough to make it a fine piece of business for all concerned, but any growth would have to come from overseas, […]

  OPENINGS:  It was important for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (Village Roadshow/MGM/Columbia/Sony) to hit the $35M that the studio is currently claiming, because that puts it slightly over the two obvious comparisons:  the $34.1M for the last Denzel Washington/Antoine Fuqua collaboration The Equalizer, and the $34.5M just a few weeks ago for Sully, a film similarly […]

  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 […]

  OPENINGS:  ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD (Imperative/TriStar/Sony) opened on Monday to an indifferent public that didn’t care about Kevin Spacey being replaced with Christopher Plummer, and nothing has changed over the course of the holiday week.  Its first full weekend is estimated at $5.5M, which should become $7.5M with Monday included, and it’s […]