WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Year to date, Warner Brothers has moved well ahead of its competing studios, thanks to two bona fide hits to balance two strikeouts.  Sony and Universal, the next level down each with around $450 million worldwide to date, has a similar hit and miss ratio to Warner Brothers, but the hits are […]

  What are we to make of the first meaningful box office numbers to come our way since March?  The area is a landscape of spin in the best of times, and these of course are not those.  Other than drive-ins, heatres remain closed in several major US markets (including both NY and LA), and […]

  OPENINGS:  JASON BOURNE (Perfect World/Universal) is claiming a $60M US start, although as is par for the course, that number includes an aggressive Sunday estimate and could come down a bit on Monday.  In any case, it will be the #2 opening for the franchise, behind the $69.3M for 2007’s Bourne Ultimatum.  That film […]

  In the bygone movie palace days Quentin Tarantino worships, exclusive “roadshow” engagements of major Hollywood releases sometimes ran for months before the films spread nationwide.  The super-hyped 70mm release of his THE HATEFUL EIGHT (Weinstein) was originally scheduled for a 2-week run, but that was swiftly cut down by half, and then to 6 […]

Weekend #37 of 2014 is looking like $65 million for the top 12 films this weekend, down 21% from the norm for this weekend. Opening at around 3,500 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Dolphin Tale 2 from Warner Brothers should average a mediocre $5,500 per theater for the […]

> Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Dolphin Tale (in its second week) moves into the #1 spot.  Look out for a boatload of TV commercials trumpeting this feat to keep the momentum going.  Not far behind is Moneyball, also in its second week, with a slightly higher weekend drop […]

Weekend #47 of 2015 is looking like a decent $202 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up moderately from the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 from Lionsgate should open with a $126.0 million weekend. The film is on track for around $360 million domestic in its run. Overseas the film could bring […]

Weekend #5 of 2015 is looking like $104 million for the top 12 films this weekend, actually well above the normal volume for this weekend ($77 million), which is hobbled by the Super Bowl and its massive television audience.  American Sniper on Friday and Saturday should salvage the weekend somewhat, but there is very little […]