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, […]

Weekend #13 of 2014 is looking like $122 million for the top 12 films, 14% below the typical volume for this weekend the past few years. Opening at around 3,400 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Noah from Paramount should average $11,300 per theater for the weekend […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #19 of 2014 now looks like $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, $2 million higher than yesterday’s estimate and now down 8% from the norm for this weekend (somewhat better than we expected due to the impressive strength of Neighbors).   Opening at 3,279 theaters, Neighbors from Universal grossed $19.6 million […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #27 of 2014 looks like $118 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, even worse than the $126 million estimate yesterday, now 31% below the norm for this weekend, and well below the $153.2 million weekend for the top 12 the last time July 4 fell on a […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studio rankings remain unchanged, and #1 Fox continues to do well, thanks to more overseas grosses from both Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and How to Train Your Dragon 2.   The second best week worldwide belongs to #6 Universal, not so much because of the domestic release of As Above/So Below but mostly […]

Weekend #44 of 2014 is looking like $73 million for the top 12 films this weekend, down 40% from the norm for this weekend.  This weekend though is really an afterthought, as the calendar trashed it as it does every seven years by placing Halloween on a Friday.  Some half-hearted openings this odd weekend, and […]

The 2014 holiday box office continues to be slightly better than average but slightly below last year. The top 10 films on Thursday January 1, 2015 totaled $46.3 million, somewhat above the average $44.8 million for the days since 2002 when this date landed on a weekday.  When January 1 last fell on a Thursday, […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #9 of 2015 looks like $86 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down significantly from the norms for this weekend and the first down weekend since January 9-11.   Opening at 3,323 theaters Friday, Focus from Warner Brothers is on track for a $18.5 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our […]