> Yep, that happened. OPENINGS:  THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) was as massive as predicted, with a $68.3M opening day that was the 5th largest in movie history, behind only the final Harry Potter and the last 3 Twilights, and slightly ahead of The Dark Knight.  The question, of course, is what happens today.  The Friday […]

> The summer movie season is starting with a bang:  according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE AVENGERS (Disney) is off to a $70M opening day.  If that number holds, it’ll be the #4 opening day of all time, behind only the final Harry Potter and 2 Twilights, and slightly ahead of, among others, The […]

    RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Worth A Ticket:  Simian Power   Although it’s positioned as the last big adventure epic of the summer, for most of its length Rupert Wyatt’s RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES isn’t really an action movie.  Somewhat surprisingly, while it establishes an alternative mythology […]

    HAYWIRE:  Worth A Ticket – For the Gasp-Inducing Fight Scenes Alone   You might think that if a major, celebrated filmmaker were to take the extraordinary step of announcing, years in advance, that he had set the time for his retirement from movies, and that, even though he was only middle-aged, he would […]

  CHRONICLE – Worth A Ticket –  “Found Footage” That Deserves to Be Found   Over the past decade, audience hunger for “reality”–the word very much in quotation marks–has engulfed much of popular cultture, from YouTube videos to self-produced songs, from tweets to television series and even cable networks built around people playing manipulated versions […]

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted had a good week around the world, now $157 million overseas to date (up from $76 million last week).  Madagascar is headed for $600+ million worldwide ($215 million domestic according to our ShowbuzzDaily projection and the overseas total to date should approach $400 million).  For comparison: Madagascar 2, November 2008, $604 million worldwide […]

A very solid week at the box office pushed total domestic revenues over $6 billion for the year to date, punctuated by strong opening for The Dark Knight Rises amid the real-life carnage in a Colorado movie theater. The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between July 16 and […]

Saturday was generally stronger than anticipated yesterday — the weekend now looks like $83 million instead of $77 million for the top 12 films.   But the rank order is basically same, The Expendables 2 remains the only film above $10 million for the weekend.     The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates for films opening […]