WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio, including early 2018 dollars for films released later in 2017. We will start tracking the 2018 studio slates in a few weeks. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. A first look at 2018 year to date after only one week. A reminder: […]

> Chris Columbus’ Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets were well-crafted, entertaining movies, but Alfonso Cuaron’s 2004 HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN was the first real Potter film. It’s also the least successful financially (if you think $795M worldwide is something to complain about).  This may be because it’s burdened by the most […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #32 of 2014 looks like a very good $173 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above our forecast ($152 million) and 26% above the norm for this weekend ($138 million). Opening at 3,845 theaters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Paramount grossed $25.6 million through Friday and is on track for […]

  Philip Seymour Hoffman, now ridiculously,  shockingly dead at 46, had two films at Sundance this year, and as will always happen, the way one thinks of those movies changes in the light of this awful event. Neither film, the John LeCarre adaptation A MOST WANTED MAN or John Slattery’s feature directing debut GOD’S POCKET, […]

    FILLY BROWN, directed by Youssef Delara (who also wrote the script) and Michael D. Olmos, falls into a recognizable Sundance genre:  sagas of poor young women (usually ethnic) struggling to escape their poverty and make a better life.  Celebrated examples in festival history include Girlfight and Real Women Have Curves; Filly Brown, while […]

The 20th weekend of 2012 is looking like a disturbing $132 million for the Top 12 films, down 17% from both this weekend last year and the four-year average for the same weekend.  Marvel’s The Avengers continues to do well, but the three films opening this weekend generated very little excitement, to say the least.  […]

> Early numbers for Thursday have TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON adding $21.5M to its boxoffice, making a total of $64.7M since Tuesday evening.  Comparing the Transformers movies isn’t apples to apples, because the first played a full day on its opening Tuesday, and the second didn’t begin until 12:01AM on Wednesday.  As of now, […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +4% above last year and now +5% above the average for this point the past four years ($6.767 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $17.8 billion worldwide when […]