> Worth a ticket. They say that the definition of madness is repeating the same action with the expectation of a different result.  But that diagnosis doesn’t allow for this:  a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up and finds himself on a train, where his reflection in the mirror doesn’t look like himself, and the woman […]

>Super 8 beats the forecast with a solid opening.  The weekend top 12 are looking to be down a bit from 2010.Super 8 opened with $13.2 million on Friday, and it looks like the JJ Abrams film will gross almost $41 million from Friday-Sunday.  The film is headed for $118 million in North America when […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #14 of 2014 looks like $160 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up over 40% from the four-year average for this weekend.  All credit goes to the second Captain America, as Disney has succesfully transformed April into the new May on the evolving movie release calendar.   […]

      CRAZY STUPID LOVE – Worth A Ticket:  It All Works     Without further ado:  CRAZY STUPID LOVE is the comedy of the summer.  Also the drama.  There are certainly spectacles out there now providing fantastic visual thrills, and some of them (X-Men, Harry Potter) are quite good, too; but if you […]

> 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 […]

Looking at wide-release films in North America (those that play on at least 400 screens at some point), 2013 now totals $2.37 billion, down 15% from 2012 and down 8% from the prior four-year average 2009-2012.  Each year-to-date period below is defined as the first Monday after New Year’s Day through the most recent Sunday. […]

> Watch It At Home:  Scrupulously accurate, to a fault. In an era that so recently gave us “The Kennedys,” possibly the worst piece of pop culture history ever produced for American television, it seems downright rude to criticize Robert Redford’s new film THE CONSPIRATOR for sticking to the facts.  Accuracy and drama, however, are […]

> Box office momentum continues this weekend with one strong new entry and several solid holdovers.  We expect another weekend tally above the same weekend in 2010. Opening at about 3,400 theaters, X-Men: First Class should average a very strong $20,800 per theater (for $71 million this weekend).  Critical reviews for this prequel have been […]