The holiday box office has turned out to be AQUAMAN (DC/Warners), and then everything else.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have its 3rd Friday at $16.8M, up 15% from Thursday and down 40% from last Friday, for a likely $51M weekend, and $215M by New Year’s Day.  Comparisons to other DC releases at the same […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is now -19% below last year’s comparable span (2 points better than last week) and now -14% below the average for this point the past four years ($2.114 billion).  Over the same […]

  Note:  The Father’s Day tide is expected to lift virtually all movie boats on Sunday, and the studios have factored that into their weekend estimates.  However, next weekend’s declines may be steeper than usual as a result. OPENINGS:  MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL (Tencent/Columbia/Sony) was the latest big-budget franchise entry to perform dimly, with a […]

  WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -5% below last year’s comparable span and still basically even with this point the past four years ($7.895 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $20.9 […]

  OPENINGS:  There were no new wide openings for New Year’s weekend. HOLDOVERS:  Word of mouth still operates in a pandemic, and it wasn’t at all friendly to WW84 (DC/Warners) which crumpled by 67% to $5.5M from one holiday weekend to the next.  It now seems highly unlikely to reach Tenet‘s $57.9M in the US […]

  OPENINGS:  The spectacular success of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (Marvel/Columbia/Sony) may have less to say about the box office overall than some would like to think.  No Way Home vaporized all pandemic-era records with a $253M weekend that was 2.8x the previous Covid high ($90M for Venom: Let There Be Carnage), becoming the #1 […]

  OPENINGS:  BODIES BODIES BODIES (A24) went wide after last week’s NY/LA launch and is now in 1290 theaters, with more expansion scheduled to come.  A24 is reporting a $3.3M weekend, although it should be noted that this estimate assumes an extremely strong Sunday hold despite a steep drop on Saturday.  No international release thus […]

>This weekend will feature a moderately successful comic book movie targeting teens and young adults and a mediocre opening for a family comedy aimed at kids and young parents.  Last year Toy Story 3 opened this weekend to huge business, forcing year-to-year declines for the weekend overall. CORRECTION — The titles in the June 19, […]