Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #40 of 2014 looks like $142 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, even better than yesterday’s estimate ($129 million) and now 37% above the norm for this weekend ($104 million).  A great start for the fall movie season with two new films opening to different demographics and […]

  December 24, along with December 31, will be the lowest box office days of the holiday season, because so many people have non-movie plans those nights.  Nevertheless, INTO THE WOODS (Disney) had a highly promising start with screenings that began at 7PM on Christmas Eve, earning $1.1M.  (That compares with the $325K that Annie […]

> The new PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 is off to a good start:  its $8M boxoffice from midnight shows last night was 30% higher than Paranormal 2‘s midnight performance, and in a league with Hangover 2‘s $10.4M, which is the highest ever for an R-rated title. Sequels, of course, tend to be increasingly more front-loaded, so […]

  OPENINGS:  FORD VS. FERRARI (20th/Disney) had a strong start with $31M, and will hope to extend its run through the holidays and into Oscar season based on its initially older-skewing audience and excellent reviews and exit polls.  The only caution is that FvF was pricey for a non-IP project, with around $200M in production/marketing […]

  OPENINGS:  NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems/Sony) surged ahead of expectations with a $8.8M Friday.  The level of its frontloadedness, however, isn’t yet clear.  2009’s Obsessed, an April 2009 Screen Gems thriller that also starred Idris Elba (with Beyonce instead of Tarji P. Henson), had an $11.2M Friday, and reached $28.6M for its weekend (and […]

For the 19 days December 16-January 3, the top 10 films each day in North America have totaled $979 million, now -3% below last year’s pace and now -18% behind the record pace of 2015, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens dominated the holiday season. With Rogue One last year and The Last Jedi this year, the Star Wars franchise has definitely taken the holiday […]

  OPENINGS:  The $9M start for THE MENU (Searchlight/Disney) was below the $10.1M launch of Barbarian–and The Menu cost about $20M more to produce.  Combine that with the fact that The Menu is really more of a very dark satire than a horror movie, and its prospects look questionable.  The film also opened in 36 […]

> MONEYBALL‘s debut looks to be in line with the opening weekend of The Social Network ($22.4M) just about a year ago.  That movie rode the Oscar race to a $97M gross.  Moneyball is more likable but less incisive than Network, and while it’s going to be part of the Oscar conversation, it’s less likely […]