OPENINGS:  Even with a big Mother’s Day bump of 24% (the same as last year’s Snatched), the $18.5M weekend for LIFE OF THE PARTY (New Line/Warners) is the lowest of Melissa McCarthy’s starring career, and even lower than Snatched‘s $19.5M.  The Mother’s Day bump means that next weekend’s drop will likely be dramatic, and […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline (which, it should be noted, were fairly overoptimistic last night), Saturday’s results were in line with Friday’s lead.  MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (Disney/Pixar) will easily take the weekend after a decent 20% Saturday bump, for what should be a $45M weekend, down only 45% from opening weekend–a better performance than […]

Weekend #8 of 2015 is looking like $119 million for the top 12 films this weekend (Friday-Sunday), another weekend well above the normal volume for this weekend (see track below). Opening at around 2,600 theaters Friday (slightly below the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Hot Tub Time Machine 2 from […]

  ROGUE ONE (Lucasfilm/Disney) is performing as expected, massive but short of last year’s core Star Wars installment The Force Awakens.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Friday’s take was $72M (including $29M from Thursday night), 40% below Force Awakens yet still one of the Top 10 opening days of all time.  In a sign […]

  OPENINGS:  GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (Legendary/Warners) didn’t have the Saturday bump that Kong: Skull Island enjoyed, instead dropping 17%, which was slightly worse even than the first Godzilla‘s 16%.  The result was a $49M US weekend, and a US total that may only reach $125M.  Although the numbers overseas were bigger, they were […]

  Behaving much like recent high-profile sequels Spectre and Mockingjay Part 2, RIDE ALONG 2 (Universal) appears to be heading for an opening weekend around 20% below its predecessor.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Ride 2 had a $11.8M Friday, compared to $14.4M for the original Ride Along.  That suggests a 4-day holiday weekend […]

  Franchise sequels are typically more frontloaded than the original installments, because there’s an established fanbase that wants to catch up with the latest update to the story.  For example, the first Hunger Games made $19.7M on its Thursday night, which made up part of a $67.3M opening day, while Catching Fire had $25.3M on Thursday […]

  Holdovers saved the boxoffice this weekend. OPENINGS:  Although the studio flew to announce that a 5th installment will be opening a year from now, the weak start for PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 (Paramount) is a signpost to the (probably temporary) end of the franchise.  PA4, which desperately claimed an opening of $30.2M but will probably […]