> For many years, the National Board of Review has been the self-appointed first group on the calendar to announce awards for Best Picture and other categories.  The NBR is sort of like the Golden Globes without super-powers; they’re 110 people tangentially related to the world of film whom you’ve never heard of and whose […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #9 of 2015 looks like $86 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down significantly from the norms for this weekend and the first down weekend since January 9-11.   Opening at 3,323 theaters Friday, Focus from Warner Brothers is on track for a $18.5 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our […]

> THE HUNGER GAMES held fairly well on its first Tuesday, dropping around 4% to $10.3M.  This isn’t quite as good as it sounds, because Tuesday is generally an up day (except where Monday is part of a holiday weekend), and the other Top 10 movies rose by 9-24%.  However, it’s not unusual for new […]

  THE GUARD – Worth A Ticket:  The Art of Performance, Crispy and Well-Done   I don’t know that there’s an actor in movies today more fun to watch than Brendan Gleeson.  Gleeson is probably best known for playing Mad-Eye Moody in several of the Harry Potter movies, but he’s been giving sensational performances since […]

>After three very rough weekends, this weekend should be very solid at the box office.  We expect the top 12 films to gross around $145 million, up sharply from the $128 million the same weekend last year.  The second Sherlock Holmes film should lead the way with over $60 million this weekend, followed by around […]

The 33rd weekend of 2012 is looking like $129 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, not as strong as we forecast Wednesday (because Expendables 2 is not as big as we forecast) but still up well over 20% from comparable weekends the past several years.             The Expendables 2 from […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is now +5% above last year and now +15% above the average for this point the past four years ($1.543 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have […]

    So that happened. THE AVENGERS:  Whenever a Sunday estimate just barely crosses a milestone threshold, it’s subject to adjustment on Monday, but whether the final number turns out to be $196M or $202M is a matter for headline writers–in any case, anything in the neighborhood of the $200.3M estimate is staggering, not to […]