WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Warner Brothers has pulled ahead thanks to the opening of 300: Rise of an Empire and recent overseas grosses from The LEGO Movie, as it really kicks into gear outside North America. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014.   YEAR TO DATE […]

  SARAH’S KEY – Watch It At Home:  Misses a Difficult Mark     There may be no cinematic minefield more dangerous for filmmakers than the Holocaust.  For films entering that difficult territory, the choices of tone, approach and imagery may not just be called into question, but outright offend audiences, and viewers have very […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The 2014 Scorecard, updated with additional overseas grosses, has been updated below.  The 2015 Scorecard will be introduced toward the end of January. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is -4% behind last year but +7% above the average for this point the past […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Warner Brothers remains on top with $804 million worldwide, while Disney has vaulted to a competitive second place with $677 million (because of the arrival of Captain America: The Winter Soldier).  Sony and Universal remain in the next tier with about $530 million worldwide each.  Fox and Paramount are […]

> The Saturday drop for PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 turned out to be very much in line with Paranormal 2‘s.  Paramount is estimating a better Sunday hold than the second installment had; if the result is instead the same as last time, the weekend gross will dip below $54M, but to a still-giant number.  Paranormal 3 […]

> DreamWorks/Disney’s decision to open the lengthy, serious THE HELP on a Wednesday in mid-August looked like a questionable strategy, but so far it’s paying off:  Deadline reports that its opening day gross is headed for $5.5M, very solid for a mid-week debut.  By way of comparison, Eat Pray Love, also based on a bestseller […]

>DeadlineHollywood is reporting Green Lantern earned $3.35 million at midnight plays (at 1,810 theaters).  This result is similar to recent midnight previews for Thor and X-Men: First Class.  (See Mitch Salem’s Green Lantern review HERE.)  This might indicate Green Lantern could open in the high-$50 million range, although we will stick with the published $55 […]

The big movers overseas this past week were Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (up $151 million to $351 million to date overseas) and Skyfall (up $61 million to $568 million overseas to date).  Updated worldwide tracks for Twilight and the completely re-energized James Bond follow.     Entering the worldwide chart this week are Rise of the Guardians (starting at […]