Beware of studio estimates and round numbers. OPENINGS:  In order to get MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) to a round $70M for the 4-day weekend, the studio had to claim the lowest Monday drop of the market’s Top 9 films–even though MIB3 hasn’t shown any particular strength with the family matinee audience (its […]

Marvel’s The Avengers (distributed by Disney) increased again to $782 million to date overseas (up from $723 million last week), although the growth rate continues to slow down.  (Click “read more” to see the updated weekly chart.)   We are now projecting The Avengers will finish around $1.46 billion worldwide.                   […]

Men in Black 3 now looks like a $55.0 million weekend, according to the studio estimate this morning (up from yesterday’s early estimate and now exactly hitting our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowBuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  The other new film this weekend, Chernobyl Diaries, is now even lower than projected yesterday: $8.0 million Friday-Sunday.       The […]

    Don’t hold your breath for Men In Black 4.   OPENINGS:  The US 3-day weekend numbers on MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) are in accord with last night’s lackluster preliminary estimate of $55M.  Sony is predicting $70M for the full holiday weekend, which may be a stretch, as it would allow for only […]

The “kids” didn’t show up for MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) on Saturday–it was wishful thinking to believe they would, considering the franchise’s decade-long absence–and the result, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, was a very mild Friday-to-Saturday bump under 10%.  That puts the picture on track for a 4-day holiday weekend of $67-70M, just […]

The 21st weekend of 2012 is looking like a stunningly weak $138 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 36% from this weekend last year (one of those rare 2011 bright spots) and down 19% from the more normal four-year average for the same three-day weekend.  Men in Black will be #1 for the […]

    J and K aren’t the only ones wearing black today. OPENINGS:  In what’s starting to look like a bad summer for any movie not called The Avengers, MEN IN BLACK 3 (Sony) opened with a subpar $18M on Friday.  Sony is doing the only thing it can do, which is to point at […]

The softness of MEN IN BLACK 3‘s (Sony) appeal noted in Mitch Metcalf’s predictions for this weekend seems to be very real.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, and contrary to much more bullish forecasts elsewhere, MIB3 is heading for a mediocre $18M at the Friday boxoffice.  (By way of comparison, last year The Hangover […]