>Another very slow week at the nation’s movie theaters, with high double-digit declines compared to similar weeks the past few years.  The year to date box office total is now down 3.8% from last year — it was -3.7% last week.  Box office should perk up as it always does between Christmas and New Year’s, […]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), the box office slump continues.  Only $70 million in volume for the top 12 films, down from the $82-87 million range the last three years for the comparable weekend.  The #1 movie, New Year’s Eve, collected less than $14 million in its opening weekend, […]

>Overseas box office show big gains for Puss in Boots and Real Steel, now at $142 million and $186 million overseas to date, respectively.  Both films are solidly in the top five films worldwide, approaching $300 million worldwide each. New Year’s Eve has $13 million overseas to date, but it only stands at $44 million […]

> NEW YEAR’S EVE (Warners):  Hardly any bump from Saturday night couples meant about as low an opening as anyone could have reasonably imagined.  Even with some play during Christmas week, the picture may struggle to earn more than its $56M production budget (which is separate from a likely $100M+ worldwide marketing budget).  After J. […]

> NEW YEAR’S EVE (Warner Bros):  So much for that franchise.  New Year’s was expected to have a softer start than Valentine’s Day, which opened on a holiday weekend that included the titular day itself.  But there’s “soft” and then there’s a 65% decline from Valentine’s opening day.  New Year’s will have a longer playing […]

> Well, another disaster weekend for the Hollywood studios.  $70 million in business for the top 12 films, down 17% from the same weekend last year (which was a fairly typical second weekend in December).  New Year’s Eve from Garry Marshall will badly miss a forecast that was already down over 50% from the opening […]

> Deadline has preliminary numbers for the Friday boxoffice, and if they hold, it looks to be a thoroughly terrible weekend for Hollywood.  NEW YEAR’S EVE appears to be under $6M for Friday, meaning a weekend of $15-17M, far below Mitch Metcalf’s $25M projection.  Even with a longer playing period than Valentine’s Day had last […]

  THE SITTER:  Not At Any Price – Adventures In Bad Moviemaking   Jonah Hill is awfully lucky to have made Moneyball this year.  In that film, fueled by a brilliant Aaron Sorkin/Steven Zaillain script, he gave a marvelous performance as half of the year’s most unlikely comedy team with Brad Pitt, but since then […]