>The Devil Inside looks like a $34-35 million opening weekend based on studio estimates (Friday and Saturday actual results with estimates for Sunday).  The top 12 films combined total this weekend has been reduced to $128 million, still 7% ahead of the typical total for the comparable weekend in past years and 30% above the […]

> UPDATE:  The Deadline numbers have shifted quite a bit from their earlier incarnation:  HUNGER GAMES is now estimated at $19.5M for Friday (a 71% drop from opening day) and a $55M weekend (down 64%).  If that number holds, GAMES would have the 11th highest 2d weekend ever, although only $200K away from the Top […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #17 of 2015 looks like $88 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, better than it looked yesterday ($81 million) but still below the norm for this weekend.  A solid Saturday lifted the weekend estimates for most films at least somewhat, but the weekend rankings did not change materially. Opening at […]

The domestic box office was back down this week.  Volatility has been the operative word recently.  The first two weeks of May (April 30-May 13) were up more than 35% each from prior years, followed by the next three weeks (May 14-June 3) which were down around 15% each week.  Then last week was up […]

Here is the Weekend Studio Estimates summary (posted much later than usual but for the record). Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #35 of 2013 now looks like $93 million for the top 12 films, down a bit from yesterday’s $95 million estimate and up a still significant 13% from the average Friday-Sunday portion […]

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 […]

> Deadline has preliminary numbers for Friday, and they suggest BREAKING DAWN PART 1 will continue to narrowly edge out the opening weekend of New Moon in 2009, with a $73.5M Friday (compared to $72.7M for New Moon).  If the number holds, and if Breaking Dawn 1 doesn’t turn out to be more front-loaded than […]

> Worth A Ticket:  Superheroes Behind the Camera, Too. The most substantial movie of the summer so far is, depending on how you calculate, the fifth in a comic book series, a prequel or a reboot.  X-MEN:  FIRST CLASS arrives with its own secret weapons, namely a smart script, a well-chosen cast, some genuine thematic […]