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 down -3% from last year and now +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($6.961 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. In the worldwide studio rankings for 2013 to date, no change in the studio standings from last week. Reminder: the chart below has been reformatted and expanded to include a look at all releases from each studio, divided into three buckets: worldwide grosses of over $300 million, grosses between $100 million and $299 […]

The 2015 holiday box office continues to shatter records, thanks to Star Wars: The Force Awakens as it plays like a holiday word of mouth hit after opening like a summer blockbuster. For the ten days December 16-25, top 10 films in North America have totaled $600 million, almost double the same period the last few years and more […]

> Watch It At Home;  The thrills are so postmodern, they don’t seem to be happening in the theater. When the original Scream arrived in 1996, the slaughtering-the-teenagers genre was already old enough to drive; the first Friday the 13th had opened more than 16 years before.  The conventions of the form were as well-worn […]

> The past week (seven days ending Sunday) came in down 2% versus last year’s comparable week (the first down week after five up weeks in a row).  Year-to-date box office is now down 3.9% versus last year.  The Help was the lone bright spot this weekend, down only 23% from its opening weekend and managing to […]

      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 […]

The 27th weekend of the year is looking like an excellent $218 million for the top 12 films, up 20-35% from the comparable weekend the last few years. Opening at around 3,900 theaters Wednesday (well above the top 10% theater count for opening weekend wide releases of 3,690 theaters), Despicable Me 2 from Universal should average $20,000 per theater for the three-day weekend […]

> The Hollywood Reporter has some rough early numbers for Friday’s boxoffice, and the news looks good for CAPTAIN AMERICA:  THE FIRST AVENGER.  Including Thursday midnight grosses of $4M, it seems to be around $25M for the day.  This would be right in the neighborhood of its Marvel-mate Thor, which had a $25.5M opening day […]