The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between November 26 and December 2 grossed an terrific $146 million, up 26% from the four-year average for the week and up a big 40% from the same week last year.  The past six weeks are now 18% above the four-year average […]

>Courtesy of the London oddsmakers (averaging a variety of books at easyodds.com), there appears to be little suspense ahead for the Best Picture and Best Director races at this year’s Academy Awards and almost no races at all for Best Supporting Actor and Actress.  Currently, The Artist is heavily favored to win Best Picture, with […]

>The fifth weekend of the year should generate about $84 million for the top 12 films — up 15% from last year’s comparable weekend but down a similar percentage from a “normal” weekend this time of year.  Three new films open this weekend to positive reviews, but none of the three should gross more than […]

Weekend #46 of 2015 is looking like a tepid $102 million for the top 12 films this weekend, well below the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). The 33 from Warner Brothers should open with a $8.0 million weekend. The film is on track for around $23 million domestic in its run. Overseas the film could bring in $27 million, giving it […]

  Yesterday we looked at some of the ways that the costs of producing a feature film are higher and more complicated than they might seem.  Today, some additional obstacles that lie between any movie and profitability.   These may be the most important and least-understood part of profitability calculations.  Every entity that distributes a […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studio rankings remain unchanged, although Warner Brothers had a nice week ($141 million worldwide the past seven days thanks to the domestic debut of Dolphin Tale 2 and a good start overseas for the sequel).  No other studio was over $100 million worldwide for the week, and most were well below that. Scroll […]

Weekend #27 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND July 1-3, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Four Day Fri-Sun Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Purge: Election Year Uni R 67% 23.0 28.5 65 45 110 The BFG Dis PG 71% […]

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between September 10 and September 16 grossed a piss-poor $93 million, down 19% from the four-year average for the week and down 21% from the same week last year.  We have to go back to the same week in 2004 to find […]