WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is still +3% above last year and still +3% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.143 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $24.0 billion worldwide when we […]

  Combine 2 big movies aimed at perfectly divergent demos, add 3D premium ticket prices, and shake well–the recipe for a strong weekend at the boxoffice. Based on preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline, both PROMETHEUS (20th) and  MADAGASCAR 3 (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) had $21M Fridays, but with the benefit of weekend matinee business, the latter is […]

> Paranormal Activity 3 is THE story at the nation’s theaters this weekend.  An opening weekend of almost $52 million (with almost $26 million in the bank Friday), blasting past Paranormal Activity 2’s $41 million opening weekend this time last year.  And yet the weekend overall is down from last year.  Blame two incredibly lame […]

  The weekend box office race may end up being quite close once matinees come into play, but NIGHT SCHOOL (Perfect World/Universal) took Friday, with preliminary numbers at Deadline putting it at $9.3M for the day (including $1.4M from Thursday night).  That’s below the $13M Friday for Kevin Hart’s Central Intelligence, and $12.9M for Get […]

Back to barren summer theaters.  The 24th weekend of 2012 is looking like a very weak $122 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 17% from this weekend last year and down 21% from a more normal third weekend in June.  Both Rock of Ages and That’s My Boy proved to be incredibly weak. […]

    J and K aren’t the only ones wearing black today. OPENINGS:  In what’s starting to look like a bad summer for any movie not called The Avengers, MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) opened with a subpar $18M on Friday.  Sony is doing the only thing it can do, which is to point at […]

  OPENINGS:  The entertainment business revolves these days around IP, but not all franchises are created equal, and there turned out to be a thunderous lack of interest in TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (Skydance/Tencent/20th/Disney/Paramount), which opened to just $29M in the US against production/marketing costs of $300M+.  A big-budget action epic in that predicament normally hopes […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is now +5% above last year and now +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($8.007 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $21.5 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office […]