Since December 16, the top 10 films at the North American box office have totaled $222 million, now slightly below the 2013 pace for December 16-23 (-1.7%) but still slightly above the average (+3.6%) for this eight-day period over the last 12 years.  The top 10 films added up to $25.6 million on Tuesday December […]

Another strong weekend at the box office: this weekend is looking like it will be over 50% higher than comparable weekends in recent years (improving from the +18% weekend last week).      Taken 2 from 20th Century Fox opened with a very good $18.6 million Friday and is on pace for $50.0 million Friday-Sunday.   […]

> Hey, go see this movie. A fairly strong weekend is in store in terms of overall box office volume, up about 9% from the same weekend last year.  Most of the business will go to returning films Dolphin Tale, Moneyball and Lion King in 3D, however.  The four films opening this weekend do not have […]

Marvel’s The Avengers (distributed by Disney) has jumped again to $629 million to date overseas (up from $441.5 million last week).  United Kingdom continue to lead the way overseas ($48.2 million so far now — up from $25.7 million this time last week).  Mexico moved up to the second-biggest territory ($40.7 million to date — up from […]

  HORRIBLE BOSSES – Watch It At Home:  Doesn’t Earn A Raise   A comedy can get away with not being very good as long as it’s funny, and HORRIBLE BOSSES delivers some laughs.  Most of those come from the chemistry between stars Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day, and since the funniest bits […]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Paranormal Activity 3 is now looking like a $54 million opening weekend, almost matching the last big opening ($54.8 for Rise of the Planet of the Apes on August 5) and blowing past the $41 million opening for Paranormal Activity 2 this week last year.  […]

  With hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, the opening dates for blockbuster movies are carefully calculated months–sometimes years–in advance.  So a last minute change doesn’t come from nowhere, and it’s notable that with less than 2 months to go, Sony has moved its Will Smith/M. Night Shyamalan vehicle AFTER EARTH from its previous […]

    THE THREE MUSKETEERS:  Not At Any Price – All For None and None For All   If the last couple of Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the current Sherlock Holmes franchise had a really nasty, dirty weekend together in Atlantic City, and 9 months later one of them (I’m not saying which) […]