>Fast Five is even stronger after a strong Saturday.  Biggest April opening ever pushes the weekend to 55% above last year’s comparable weekend. The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates now show that Fast Five should finish its run with $183 million, ahead of Rio, which is headed for $149 million.  The other openers are DOA, with […]

> Worth a Ticket. HANNA may be the first movie not based on a graphic novel to feel like it is.  Written by Seth Lochhead and David Farr (the first film for both) and directed by Joe Wright, it has the feel of a film conceived in visual rather than dramatic terms, more concerned with […]

Weekend #32 of 2014 is looking like $152 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 11%from the norm for this weekend and the second up weekend in a row after six straight down weekends. Opening at over 3,700 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Teenage Mutant […]

> Deadline reports that Warners has set the release schedule for its 2 Oscar contenders.  Clint Eastwood’s biography of FBI patriarch (and cross-dresser) J. EDGAR, starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, is opening November 9 in a few big cities, with wide release on November 11; and EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE, the Stephen […]

  Audiences to Hollywood:  Happy New Year!  And… what have you done for us lately?  2013 turned out to be a terrific year for high-quality movies, with so many good films and performances that some will inevitably be squeezed out of the Oscar race.  But that was so last year.  What does 2014 have in […]

Weekend #38 of 2016 forecasts for films opening wide and major returning films: NEW FILMS THIS WEEKEND September 16-18, 2016 Critics Positive ($ millions) Opening Weekend Forecast Domestic Total Projection Overseas Total Projection Worldwide Total Projection Blair Witch LG R 53% 21.5 57 60 117 Bridget Jones’s Baby Uni R 83% 13.5 40 30 70 Snowden […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2019 dollars for films released in late 2018. We will continue to track the 2018 slates until mid-February, when we will switch to tracking the 2019 slates. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American […]

Weekend #4 of 2015 is looking like $134 million for the top 12 films this weekend, way up from both the norm for this weekend and the same weekend last year.  After missing the American Sniper opening weekend number by a mile in last week’s forecast, forgive us if we are a little gun shy.  But […]