Marvel’s The Avengers (distributed by Disney) has jumped again to $629 million to date overseas (up from $441.5 million last week).  United Kingdom continue to lead the way overseas ($48.2 million so far now — up from $25.7 million this time last week).  Mexico moved up to the second-biggest territory ($40.7 million to date — up from […]

> Deadline has preliminary numbers for Saturday and the weekend, and any worries that THE HELP would suffer from front-loading are out the window.  Rather amazingly, the picture seems to have climbed more than 25% from Friday to Saturday, and it seems likely to get near $25M for the weekend and $35M since its opening […]

> Oren Moverman’s first film as a director, The Messenger, was a beautifully contained, emotionally detailed story about soldiers assigned to deliver tragic news to the families of the deceased.  In his new film RAMPART, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, Moverman is more ambitious and, unfortunately, a victim of the sophomore jinx. This […]

> What was expected to be a slow weekend at the boxoffice is proving to be exactly that.  The Hollywood Reporter has preliminary numbers for Friday, and they show FOOTLOOSE in the lead with $5.5M, heading for probably $17M or so for the weekend.  THE THING is way behind, with $3.5M for Friday that may […]

> BREAKING DAWN PART 1:  Although BD1 had greater declines on Friday (as opposed to Thursday midnight) and Saturday than New Moon did in 2009, Summit’s weekend estimate assumes exactly the same 34% drop for Sunday.  So it’s possible their $139.5M figure could come down a bit in the actuals tomorrow (which could move the […]

> There’s a principled discussion to be had about whether the Sundance Film Festival should be featuring movies that are essentially low-budget Hollywood entertainments made outside the studio system. But that discussion fades into irrelevance when the result is as hilarious and accomplished as FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL…, which premiered tonight. Directed by first-time […]

> It’s a measure of how desperately this year’s Oscar needed some kind of surprise that the closest thing to a thrill all evening was Meryl Streep’s win as Best Actress.  Streep has been winning Academy Awards since 1979, and she’d been touted for her performance as Margaret Thatcher since months before THE IRON LADY […]

> THE HUNGER GAMES ended its first week of release with a $189.9M total that was the 7th highest in history.  That result was exceeded only by the blockbuster summer sequels The Dark Knight, Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Pirates of the Caribbean:  Dead Man’s Chest, Spider-Man […]