Wreck-It-Ralph enters the worldwide chart with a modest $12 million overseas to date, but that will grow to match and probably exceed the $171 million we expect for the film domestically.  The film could end up with $350-375 million worldwide ultimately. Skyfall, which opens Friday in North America, is already up to $287 million overseas in […]

The weekend looks like a decent $125 million for the top 12 films, a little better than it looked yesterday (now slightly beating the multi-year average for this weekend).  Each of the three openers had good Saturday grosses and are exceeding the predictions in Wednesday’s  ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Forecast. The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates for films opening wide this […]

Weekend #44 is on pace to almost match the multi-year average for this weekend and exceed the same weekend last year, which was missing an animated family film.  This year Wreck-It Ralph props up the weekend, as Megamind did on this weekend in 2010 and Madagascar 2 did in 2008.  Flight is solid but not […]

This weekend is looking like it will be about 12% below the comparable weekend the last few years (about $106 million for the top 12 films).  Wreck-It-Ralph should play well to the family crowd, while Flight will be a moderate success at best, and Man with the Iron Fists is destined for an early exit […]

  Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm (for a reported $4.05B), along with its ownership of Marvel and of course its homegrown brands, brings family entertainment one step closer to near-hegemonic rule.  Although there are other assets involved, this is largely a purchase of the gigantic STAR WARS empire, a powerhouse in almost every field it’s ever touched, […]

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between October 22 and October 28 grossed a mediocre $119 million, even with the four-year average for the week and down 3% from the same week last year.    The past six weeks are now 7% above the four-year average box office […]

Among films currently playing in North America, the big gainers overseas were Taken 2 and Hotel Transylvania (each up $23 million overseas since last week), as well as Paranormal Activity 4 (just behind at +$22 million). But the biggest action overseas went to James Bond: $77 million in 25 markets for Skyfall.  The Daniel Craig action film comes to America on November […]

The weekend looks like a mediocre $82 million for the top 12 films, a little softer than it looked yesterday (now slightly lagging the multi-year average for this weekend).  Argo continues to do well, as we expected, but the four openers all did even worse than our conservative predictions in Wednesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Forecast. The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates […]