> Everyone wanted to go to the movies on the first full weekend of 2012. PARAMOUNT:  The studio went straight to its Paranormal Activity playbook to launch THE DEVIL INSIDE (pre-release screenings, months of buzz), and it all worked:  the picture should gross at least $30M in its opening weekend, and with a $1M production […]

In the movie 42, Jackie Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman) repeatedly asks Branch Rickey why he is breaking baseball’s unwritten whites-only rule.  Rickey (played by Harrison Ford) gives very vague, unsatisfying responses each time.  What a blown dramatic opportunity.  In Ken Burns’ nine-part documentary masterpiece “Baseball,” an aged Red Barber (the Dodgers’ radio broadcaster) describes the […]

Weekend #45 is on pace to exceed the multi-year average for this weekend by well over 20%.  Skyfall matched our bullish ShowbuzzDaily forecast and is on track to be the best-opening and best-grossing Bond film ever.   Wreck-It Ralph, Flight and even Argo continue to do solid business, rounding out the current slate of films […]

      THE RAVEN:  Watch It At Home – Not Much Tell-Tale Heart (Or Brain)   Sometimes less-than-great minds think alike, too.  The idea of Edgar Allen Poe as a detective investigating strange phenomena was at the center of ABC’s busted pilot Poe last year (see our pilot report here), but it seems the […]

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 […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +5% above last year and still +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($8.177 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $22.1 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s now […]

>Updated international figures follow.  Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol is surging, as Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and especially Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is just getting going. Click “read more” for the complete chart.

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  A huge weekend for Warner Brothers, pushes the studio back into a secure second place among the Hollywood studios. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is still running -6% behind last […]