>Accurate theater counts are in, and we have adjusted the per theater averages, as well as updated critical sentiment as we head into the very slow Labor Day weekend. Apollo 18 opens today at 3,328 theaters, and we expect a low $4,000 average per theater this weekend (Friday-Sunday only, as we always do).  We have […]

And now the waiting game begins for Team Metcalf.  With all but one movie now open, the Metcalf slate now totals almost $1.1 billion to date, with a little but of upside remaining in Madagascar 3 and to some extent Prometheus. Team Salem’s top two films open very soon:  Brave from Pixar this Friday and Amazing Spider-Man […]

> The past week (seven days ending Sunday) came in down 12% versus last year’s comparable week (the second down week in a row).  Year-to-date box office is now down 4.1% versus last year.  The Help again was the lone bright spot this weekend, down only 27% from last weekend and shaking off the effect […]

    TOWER HEIST:  Watch It At Home – Hardly Luxury-Class   There may never have been a director more proud of being a hack than Brett Ratner.  In a recent NY Times profile, Ratner boasts (when he’s not going on about his friendship with Roman Polanski, because yeah, there’s a social relationship you’d want […]

> The sixth weekend of 2012 is actually something to get excited about.  Better than the same weekend last year (yawn) but also stronger than a “typical” weekend for this time of year, looking at the past four years.  A photo finish is in store between Safe House and The Vow (both around $36 million […]

>  See A Word About Busted Pilots Peter Tolan, who with Denis Leary created Rescue Me, knows something about the comedy that emerges when when men try to assert their masculinity in the most idiotic ways.  So you can understand why FOX developed COUNCIL OF DADS, which was meant to bring that kind of tone […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #18 of 2013 kicks of the summer with a very solid $203 million for the top 12 films, below the Avengers-fueled same weekend last year but above the four-year average for this weekend.    Disney is very happy to have Marvel and its films now in its orbit: three years […]

> The eighth weekend of 2012 is another solid one, running 18% ahead of last year’s same weekend and 22% ahead of the multi-year average for this weekend.  This is the third weekend in a row that 2012 volume beats both the easy target of last year’s depressed levels as well as the more difficult […]