> Real Steel is opening at forecast — at a very decent level, but will it be enough to cover the big visual effects costs and all the above-the-line talent expenses?  More on that in Box Office Footnotes.  In second place, The Ides of March missed its rather moderate forecast.  It will need a shelf’s […]

A brief update this week.  Team Salem had the biggest week, up $81 million to $371 million through Sunday for the slate. A full week of Brave was the main driver for the gain.  The first Monday-Thursday period combined with the second weekend of Brave totaled $65 million, exactly matching the opening weekend number — a very good […]

Weekend #51 of 2015 is looking like an amazing $281 million for the top 12 films this weekend, reminiscent of another historic weekend six years ago (see comparisons below). Star Wars: The Force Awakens from Disney should open with $225 million Friday-Sunday. The film is on track for around $720 million domestic in its run. Overseas the film could bring in $1.2 billion, […]

    THE LORAX:  Not Even For Free – A Seussian Mess   It may not be pretty, but surely it’s true–Credit must go where credit is due.  In this case, that means the Universal Pictures Marketing Department, which as it turns out has done a splendid job these last few weeks of hiding just […]

Scattered overseas results are in for the past week, mostly for the recent openers.Fast & Furious 6 is off to an impressive start outside of North America, as well as domestically.  In contrast, Epic is already slightly outshining The Hangover Part III worldwide (an early lead in overseas box office for Epic more than makes up for a slight estimated domestic advantage […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #28 of 2015 looks like $206 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, above the norm for this weekend and way above last year’s weak weekend. Opening at 4,301 theaters Friday, Minions from Universal is on track for a $117.0 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat above our $108.0 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). The […]

    THE WOMAN IN BLACK:  Watch It At Home – Fun, But Creaky As Its Doors   THE WOMAN IN BLACK is so aggressively old-fashioned it sometimes feels like the horror movie version of The Artist.  A haunted house story in the grand style, it may be in color and wide-screen, but its heart […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #29 of 2013 looks like a decent $178 million for the top 12 films, about even with the average for this weekend over the past several years (but down significantly from last year’s same weekend which was dominated by the opening of The Dark Knight Rises).   Opening at 2,903 […]