> This Week: Don’t Miss ShowbuzzDaily’s First Annual Summer Blockbuster Draft!   The last weekend of April is an odd one for Hollywood:  as Mitch Metcalf’s analysis shows,sometimes it begins the parade of summer franchises, and in other years it’s just the quiet end of Spring.  Fast Five, of course, puts 2011 firmly in the former […]

>The much anticipated surge at the box office did not materialize for the slew of sequels releases.  Total volume for the past week was down 17% from last year, and the second Sherlock Holmes and third Alvin and the Chipmunks are lagging behind their predecessors.       The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films […]

  This week, as the clock ticks toward the start of the summer movie season, we’re taking a studio-by-studio look at each company’s line-up and prospects.  Last time we covered Sony, and today we’ll examine Universal. LAST SUMMER:  Universal’s 2013 summer was anchored by two gigantic sequels:  Fast & Furious 6 ($239M US/$789M worldwide) and […]

Updated International chart — now tracking the past six months on a rolling basis.  At any given time, that will translate to about 75 films on the chart at a time. New this week is Skyfall, which will probably top out at around $650 million worldwide (between Madagascar 3 and Men in Black 3).

> One of the most heartening developments of the past couple of years has been the spreading popularity in theaters of cultural events presented in HD video.  Operas and ballets have become monthly features in many cities, and stage shows are now joining in:  Britain’s National Theatre has been presenting several productions on screen for […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #14 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up 40% from the four-year average for this weekend.  All credit goes to the second Captain America, as Disney has succesfully transformed April into the new May on the evolving movie release calendar.   Opening at 3,938 […]

> UPDATE:  The Hollywood Reporter has refreshed its numbers, and a surprise appears to be coming from the most unlikely direction.  Cowboys and Aliens seems to be down a tad, to a $13-13.5M Friday and an underperforming weekend that may not reach $40M–but the shocker is that it could face competition for the weekend’s #1 […]

> Whether or not IMMORTALS holds together at the boxoffice after its opening few days, the impressive launch is good news for Relativity, which is trying to prove it can survive as a standalone distributor of Hollywood-level movies.  That doesn’t necessarily mean Immortals will hit profit (its financial picture is complicated by various distributors handling […]