Weekend #36 of 2014 is looking like $54 million for the top 12 films this weekend, down 13% from the norm for this weekend, which is usually the weakest weekend of the year.  In the last two years, this weekend has produced Riddick, The Words and The Cold Light of Day.  But those look like […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #18 of 2015 now looks like $221 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down from yesterday’s estimate ($249 million) but still above the norm for this weekend as summer gets going early.  Saturday was fairly soft at the box office because of a huge day in TV sports […]

  NEW YEAR’S EVE:  Not At Any Price – Calling it a “Sit-Com” Insults TV   NEW YEAR’S EVE is such a calculated piece of commercial manufacture that it deserves a Powerpoint presentation more than a review.  Although strictly speaking it isn’t a sequel to Valentine’s Day (and in fact a few of the same […]

> This year’s Academy Awards have so far engendered the kind of enthusiasm and excitement usually associated with a suburban DMV office on a Tuesday afternoon.  People seem to be sullenly resigned to the inevitability of THE ARTIST‘s victory, even though it would be unlikely to get anything like a majority of the Academy’s estimated […]

> 2012 is off to a solid start with $135 million in business for the top 12 films — up 12% from a typical performance for the first weekend of the year but up sharply from the disaster that was 2011’s opening frame.  The Devil Inside exceeded our forecast and will be the #1 movie […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is still down -1% from last year and now +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.898 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed […]

Ted now looks like a $54.1 million opening weekend, according to the studio estimate this morning (exceeding our forecast in Wednesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Predictions).  Warner Brothers has pulled Magic Mike’s weekend estimate below $40 million, while Madea’s Witness Protection is down a bit to $26.4 million.   Brave is on track for a 49% decline […]

> BREAKING DAWN PART 1:  Christmas comes but once a year, and for Summit that day is the 24 hours after a Twilight movie opens.  (A little credit to the studio, too, for not fudging the numbers, which would have been easy enough to do since they’re so close, in order to claim a franchise […]