> Rodrigo Garcia’s film ALBERT NOBBS (he shares auteurship with Glenn Close, who served as screenwriter with John Banville and Gabriella Prekop and as a producer as well as star) caters to what used to be called the James Ivory audience, when he was still churning his films out. In NY, these are the audiences […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #48 is on pace to exceed the multi-year average for this weekend by 33% — the fourth weekend in a row 20% or more above the comparable weekend average.  All credit goes to strong holdovers Breaking Dawn Part 2, Skyfall, Lincoln, and even Life of Pi and Rise of the […]

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between November 26 and December 2 grossed an terrific $146 million, up 26% from the four-year average for the week and up a big 40% from the same week last year.  The past six weeks are now 18% above the four-year average […]

>The ninth weekend of the year should generate about $125 million for the top 12 films, a fairly typical weekend for the first weekend in March — up 2% from last year’s comparable weekend and down a negligible 1% from the four-year average for this weekend.  Universal should stand tall with a $44 million opening […]

The softness of MEN IN BLACK 3‘s (Sony) appeal noted in Mitch Metcalf’s predictions for this weekend seems to be very real.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, and contrary to much more bullish forecasts elsewhere, MIB3 is heading for a mediocre $18M at the Friday boxoffice.  (By way of comparison, last year The Hangover […]

    Audiences sank Universal’s Battleship. OPENINGS:  There’s no way to spin the arrival of BATTLESHIP (Universal)  as anything other than a horribly expensive flop.  Its $9M opening day is even less than the infamous John Carter‘s $9.8M, and it may not have the 3x weekend multiple that got Carter to a $30M weekend.  Battleship […]

Based on Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #9 of 2013 is a little better than it appeared yesterday but still down 38% from the same weekend the last few years.  Jack the Giant Slayer opened reasonably well, but there are no others films doing significant business (weekends over $10 million).  What a mess.         […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 now looks like $161 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 18% above the norm for this weekend now matching the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million late Thursday/Friday and $25.6 million Saturday, now putting the film on track […]