Articles

March 22, 2015
 

Weekend Studio Estimates 3.20-22.2015

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #12 of 2015 looks like $123 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than it looked yesterday but still below the norms for this weekend.  

Opening at 3,875 theaters Friday, Insurgent from Lionsgate/Summit is on track for a $54.0 million opening three-day weekend (better than yesterday’s estimate and now closer to our $59.0 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). The film is pacing toward $13,900 per theater for the weekend (compared to the $5,333 opening weekend average for all wide-release films the last two years). Critical sentiment at RottenTomatoes is soft (33% positive overall and 33% positive with top critics).  Insurgent is now headed for $140 million total domestic.

Opening at 2,816 theaters Friday, The Gunman from Open Road Films is still on track for a $5.0 million opening three-day weekend (below our $7.5 million forecast). The film is pacing toward a DOA $1,800 per theater for the weekend. Critical sentiment is very weak (13% positive overall and 19% positive with top critics).  The Gunman is headed for $8 million total domestic.

Opening at 1,320 theaters Friday, Do You Believe? from Pure Flix is on track for a $4.0 million opening three-day weekend (below our $6.5 million forecast). The film is pacing toward a weak $3,000 per theater for the weekend. Critical sentiment is also weak (13% positive overall).  Do You Believe? is headed for $9 million total domestic.

Weekend 12: March 20-22, 2015 ($ millions)
Pre-Wknd Showbuzz Forecast Early Weekend Estimate Weekend Studio Estimate Actual Fri/ Sat Gross Showbuzz Domestic Final Proj.
Insurgent LG/Sum [59.0] 50.1 54.0 21.3/ 19.9 140
Cinderella Dis [37.8] 34.7 34.5 9.5/ 15.3 210
Run All Night WB [6.3] 4.5 5.1 1.4/ 2.3 32
The Gunman OpenRoad [7.5] 5.0 5.0 1.8/ 2.0 8
Kingsman: The Secret Service Fox [4.4] 4.9 4.6 1.3/ 2.1 130
Do You Believe? PureFlix [6.5] 3.8 4.0 1.2/ 1.3 9
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel FoxS [4.0] 3.4 3.5 .96/ 1.5 34
Focus WB [3.3] 3.2 3.3 .94/ 1.5 57
Chappie Sony [2.9] 2.6 2.7 .71/ 1.2 32
SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water Par [2.5] 2.7 2.4 .58/ 1.1 165
McFarland, USA Dis [2.4] 2.2 2.2 .62/ 1.0 45
American Sniper WB [—] 1.6 1.6 .43/ n/a 355

Note: The table above summarizes an early look at the weekend. The first column is a reminder of each film’s ShowBuzzDaily Forecast for the weekend (in brackets). The second column, on which the films are sorted, displays the new weekend projection for each film, based on the Friday numbers (the third column). The final column is a preliminary estimate of the ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Total number for the film’s total run in North America. A “++” indicates the Domestic number has been upgraded; a “–” indicates a downgrade.

Top Holdovers

Cinderella is headed for $34.5 million this weekend (down -49% from last weekend and slightly below our $37.8 million forecast). Revised total domestic outlook: $210 million.

Run All Night is headed for $5.1 million this weekend (down -54% from last weekend and below our $6.3 million forecast). Revised total domestic outlook: $32 million.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is headed for $4.6 million this weekend (down -26% from last weekend and near our $4.4 million forecast). Revised total domestic outlook: $130 million.

 

Total Box Office Volume

The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $123 million total Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s estimate ($119 million) but still down -15% from the four-year average for the comparable weekend and down -8% from the same weekend last year.

WEEKEND 12 ($ millions)
Weekend Volume: Top 12 Films Top Movies Opening Each Weekend (Fri-Sun only)
2015 $123 Insurgent $54.0, The Gunman $5.0, Do You Believe? $4.0
2014 $133 Divergent $54.6,  Muppets Most Wanted $17.0, God’s Not Dead $9.2
2013 $130 The Croods $43.6, Olympus Has Fallen $30.4, Admission $6.2
2012 $204 The Hunger Games $152.5
2011 $109 Limitless $18.9, The Lincoln Lawyer $13.2, Paul $13.0
Avg 2011-14 $144

Check back later for the Worldwide Studio Scorecard and the International Box Office report.



About the Author

Mitch Metcalf
MITCH METCALF has been tracking every US film release of over 500 screens (over 2300 movies and counting) since the storied weekend of May 20, 1994, when Maverick and Beverly Hills Cop 3 inspired countless aficionados to devote their lives to the art of cinema. Prior to that, he studied Politics and Economics at Princeton in order to prepare for his dream of working in television. He has been Head of West Coast Research at ABC, then moved to NBC in 2000 and became Head of Scheduling for 11 years.