> UPDATE: Deadline has a clearer picture of the day’s boxoffice, and THE HELP is already having a superb weekend, leading the day with $5.7M, down a tiny 25% from last week.  If this number holds, its full weekend could reach $19-20M, which would give it a total of $70M+ and a clear path to […]

> Gus Van Sant has been making movies for 25 years, but Restless–apart from its technical polish–feels like the work of a Sundance newcomer. And one who’s been reading too much Salinger, while meanwhile wearing out his DVD of Harold and Maude. Restless is way beyond twee; its mega-tweeness is like a Transformers movie compared […]

Through 14 weeks of the year, 2013 totals $2.232 billion (for wide-release films that have played at more than 400 theaters).  This remains well behind the 2012 pace ($2.624 billion) and the very similar 2010 pace ($2.618 billion).  However, 2013 continues to pull away from the particularly slow performance in 2011 ($2.071 billion). As a […]

> On the occasion of Super 8‘s release, the Top 10 movies directed by Steven Spielberg: 10. THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974):  His first feature film, it suggests that had he never touched a special effect in his life, Spielberg would still have been a great American filmmaker.  A movie about celebrity and family that moves […]

No box office predictions for this weekend.  This feature will return next week. ###

The 13th weekend of 2013 looks like it will be even with the pace for the comparable weekend the past few years.  The top 12 films Friday-Sunday should total about $144 million. Opening at a very high 3,719 theaters Thursday, G.I. Joe: Retaliation from Paramount should average a solid $10,300 per theater for the weekend (for a […]

> Thanks to Universal’s Fast Five, the box office is headed for the third up weekend in a row.  Other openers to have minimal impact, however. Another up weekend is in store, fueled by Fast Five, the fifth in the Fast and Furious franchise (see complete franchise track below).  The film should open at a […]

  Everyone enjoys a quiet weekend before the Bat-attack begins at 12:01AM Thursday night. OPENINGS:  The important number for ICE AGE:  CONTINENTAL DRIFT (20th) isn’t the $46M US opening (the lowest of the franchise), but the $95.2M earned overseas, giving it a total of $339.2M internationally since the movie started opening in foreign territories more […]