FRIENDS WITH KIDS:  Worth A Ticket – Sitcom, In A Good Way   We live in a pop culture where the recent Emmy Award nominees are so clearly superior to the films up for this past year’s Oscar that it’s not even worth arguing about. (Mad Men vs The Artist?  Game of Thrones […]

  Universal, having eaten a poisoned apple with Battleship, is relieved by this weekend’s tastier produce. OPENINGS:  SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMAN (Universal) muscled its way to a $56.3M opening, which is what it needed, considering its $175M (plus marketing) cost.  The $39.3M pulled in from 45 territories overseas is initially underwhelming, although there’s plenty […]

>Four new films opened this weekend in North America and have joined our worldwide box office tracking chart.  Three of the four are toward the bottom of the chart and are destined to stay there.  The other film, Act of Valor, is currently in the middle of the pack but should rise as moderate overseas […]

> UPDATE:  More detailed numbers are proving even better for MI4, which reportedly made $6.6M on Wednesday.  The action sequel is close to a $2K average at 3400 theatres, and looks like the hit of the season with $25M already in the bank. Things are less promising for THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, which […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #18 of 2014 continues to look like $144 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 25% from the norm for this weekend.   Opening at 4,324 theaters, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Sony grossed $35.5 million Friday and $33.1 million Saturday, putting the film on track for a $92.0 million […]

> Today, we return to SHOWBUZZDAILY‘s coverage of the Oscar race (see Part 1 here, with an introduction to those contenders best called the Field–these may not be the favorites, but even as longer shots they’re still in the race. FIELD YOUNG ADULT (Paramount – Dec. 9) SHOWBUZZDAILY odds to be nominated:  3/1 Bookie odds […]

> Rodrigo Garcia’s film ALBERT NOBBS (he shares auteurship with Glenn Close, who served as screenwriter with John Banville and Gabriella Prekop and as a producer as well as star) caters to what used to be called the James Ivory audience, when he was still churning his films out. In NY, these are the audiences […]

The big gainers overseas this week: Brave (up $33 million, finally over the $200 million milestone overseas), Dark Knight Rises (up $31 million this week overseas), Ted (up $25 million overseas this week), Total Recall (up $22 million this week),  Ice Age: Continental Drift (up $18 million to an incredible $662 million overseas to date) and Madagascar 3 (up $17 million to $369 million […]