OPENINGS:  Coming into this weekend, the discussion about BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was mostly about whether with its critical raves it could exceed expectations by 20% or so and become October’s #1 opening.  But things went in the other direction, and its current $31.5M estimate doesn’t even put it in the month’s Top 20.  […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is still down -2% from last year and still +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.042 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost […]

  OPENINGS:  Let’s be clear:  the decision to greenlight a $100M production budget for IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (Village Roadshow/Warners)–a period whaling adventure that features about 10 minutes of a CG whale and is otherwise mostly (spoiler alert) about the cast starving and suffering–was fundamentally insane.  Even if the film had been good, […]

  By Sunday, AMERICAN SNIPER (Warners/Village Roadshow) may have one of the top 10-day wide release box office totals in history, as Clint Eastwood’s behemoth continues to lay waste to everything else in theatres.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Sniper earned $18M on Friday, down just 40% from its mammoth first day of wide […]

  OPENINGS:  OCEAN’S EIGHT (Village Roadshow/Warners) had a $41.5M weekend, the highest of the Ocean’s movies by a bit (not adjusting for inflation).  The only point of concern is that it’s the first Ocean’s movie to drop on Saturday (by 4%, where the others had risen 6-17%), although that may only reflect the fact that […]

> Saturday was a little weaker than expected, according to preliminary boxoffice figures reported by Deadline, resulting in some shortfalls compared to initial weekend estimates.  21 JUMP STREET (Sony) had a small Saturday decline of about 5%, which should get it to around $34M for the weekend.  The novelty of Will Ferrell speaking Spanish in […]

  OPENINGS:  David Cronenberg is a venerated filmmaker, but not a source of many box office hits:  in a career that spans more than 4 decades, his highest-grossing film in the US is still 1986’s The Fly at $40.5M (a little over $100M adjusted for inflation).  That won’t change with his brooding and frequently grotesque […]

The 2015 holiday box office continues to shatter records, thanks to Star Wars: The Force Awakens as it plays like a holiday word of mouth hit after opening like a summer blockbuster. For the ten days December 16-25, top 10 films in North America have totaled $600 million, almost double the same period the last few years and more […]