Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #2 of 2014 looks like $121 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 12% from the average for the same weekend the past few years (but better than we forecast earlier this week). Opening at 2,876 theaters Friday, Lone Survivor from Universal grossed $14.4 million Friday, putting the Peter Berg-directed Afghanistan War […]

  CARNAGE:  Watch It At Home – Polanski and All-Star Cast Miss the Bullseye   The trick about CARNAGE, which is based on the Tony Award-winning play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, is that despite its pedigree, and the big names usually associated with it, it’s more of a game than a revelation.  The […]

>Now 12 full weeks into 2012, year-to-date domestic box office is running 26% ahead of last year’s worrisome pace, and the year-to-date total is now fully 15% ahead of the comparable period’s average for the last several years.  The Hunger Games lived up to the hype and played like an early summer tentpole in March. […]

> The past week (seven days ending Sunday) is up 2% versus last year’s comparable week.  Year-to-date box office is now down 3.8% versus last year, the smallest year-to-year margin we’ve seen so far this year.  The Lion King in 3D is headed for about $118 million in additional domestic box office for Disney, while Contagion has been upgraded […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #42 of 2013 now looks like $96 million for the top 12 films, down 15% from the average for the same weekend the past few years. Opening at 3,157 theaters Friday, Carrie from Sony Pictures grossed $6.5 million Friday and $6.3 million Saturday, now on track for $17.0 […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -6% below last year’s comparable span and still -1% below this point the past four years ($7.205 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $19.1 billion worldwide […]

STUDIO SCORECARD. In the worldwide studio rankings for 2013 to date, only moderate changes for each studio.  The biggest gainer this week was Paramount, which released a film from its tiny slate: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. However, it shows just how slow the box office environment is right now when a $93 million weekly gain is tops among […]

>Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol opened with a narrow 425-theater preview domestically this weekend, but the fourth M:I opened in over two-thirds of the international markets this weekend and already has taken in $68 million overseas.  The other domestic openers this weekend had fairly limited international bookings the first weekend.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of […]