HUGO:  Worth A Ticket – If Only For the Visual Splendors   Paramount doesn’t have much choice but to market Martin Scorsese’s HUGO as a family movie:  it’s got a PG rating, a young boy and girl as the hero and heroine, a children’s book (“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick) as […]

>The year to-date box office tally picked up some ground versus last year with the past week running 12% ahead of the same week last year.  The actual weekend openings for Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Happy Feet Two came in somewhat below the studio projections issued Sunday.          The Past Week: […]

> Per a Box Office Mojo tweet, the final actual number for BREAKING DAWN PART 1‘s opening weekend fell a bit to $138.1M.  This isn’t a major surprise, as the first 2 days of the weekend had indicated numbers more front-loaded than New Moon‘s opening, yet Summit estimated Breaking Dawn 1‘s Sunday with the same […]

  HAPPY FEET TWO:  Watch It At Home – Not So Happy This Time   Most sequels, by and large, exist only because an earlier movie made lots of money–that’s just a fact.  But sequels often at least try to find some justification beyond that, even if it’s only a commitment to do the same […]

>Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 debuts on the international box office chart with a very solid $400+ million worldwide mark.  The latest Twilight has an overseas total to date of $144 million already with an expected domestic final of $292 million. Adventures of Tintin is now up to almost $190 million overseas, while Real […]

> BREAKING DAWN PART 1:  Although BD1 had greater declines on Friday (as opposed to Thursday midnight) and Saturday than New Moon did in 2009, Summit’s weekend estimate assumes exactly the same 34% drop for Sunday.  So it’s possible their $139.5M figure could come down a bit in the actuals tomorrow (which could move the […]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 is opening just short of $140 million in its first weekend, while Happy Feet Two looks like a $22 million opening.  The top 12 films this weekend should do a combined $217 million, up 16% from the same […]

> Three Muppets at a Rehearsal Thanksgiving weekend brings three well-reviewed family/ holiday entries and a mild expansion for a comedic-drama with Oscar hopes.  Total box office volume should be around $161 million for the three-day portion of the weekend, down about 6% from the same weekend last year when Tangled and Burlesque opened and […]