OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS (Hasbro/Paramount) launched at the higher end of tracking expectations with $60.5M.  Beasts is a much bigger-budgeted effort than its immediate predecessor, 2018’s Bumblebee (which opened with $21.7M but had a 6x multiple thanks to word of mouth and the dynamics of the Christmas box office).  More impressively, Beasts […]

> Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Dolphin Tale (in its second week) moves into the #1 spot.  Look out for a boatload of TV commercials trumpeting this feat to keep the momentum going.  Not far behind is Moneyball, also in its second week, with a slightly higher weekend drop […]

  OPENINGS:  The weekend multiple for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) was 3.2x, about mid-way between the first Dragon‘s 3.6x and Dragon 2‘s 2.6x.  (Note that the studio isn’t including $2.5M in paid preview income in its weekend number–if that were added to Friday the way Thursday night revenue is, […]

Ted now looks like a $54.1 million opening weekend, according to the studio estimate this morning (exceeding our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  Warner Brothers has pulled Magic Mike’s weekend estimate below $40 million, while Madea’s Witness Protection is down a bit to $26.4 million.   Brave is on track for a 49% decline […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #15 of 2013 is now looking like $110 million for the top 12 films, up slightly from yesterday’s estimate and now up a few percentage points from the same weekend in prior years.   Opening at 3,003 theaters Friday, 42 from Warner Brothers grossed $9.1 million Friday and $11.4 million […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #44 of 2014 looks like $82 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 33% the norm for this weekend ($123 million), which admittedly does not usually have Halloween ruining it by falling on Friday. Opening at 2,766 theaters, Nightcrawler from Open Road Films grossed $3.2 million Friday and $4.7 million […]

  OPENINGS:  CRAWL (Paramount) may be an example of a studio outsmarting itself.  Paramount held no critics screenings, presumably because disdain was expected, and thus was unable to create any advance buzz around a response that turned out to be remarkably enthusiastic (88% on Rotten Tomatoes).  The result was a tepid $12M opening, and since […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #49 of 2013 still looks like $87 million for the top 12 films from Friday-Sunday, right on target for the usually slow post-Thanksgiving weekend.   Opening at 2,101 theaters Friday, Out of the Furnace from Relativity grossed $1.9 million Friday and $2.1 million Saturday, now on track for a $5.3 million […]