WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Universal and Sony each had weeks over $100 million, mostly because of the domestic releases of The Boxtrolls (Focus) and The Equalizer.  But both movies remain mired toward the bottom of the worldwide studio rankings. Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014.   YEAR TO DATE BOX […]

Weekend #44 of 2014 is looking like $73 million for the top 12 films this weekend, down 40% from the norm for this weekend.  This weekend though is really an afterthought, as the calendar trashed it as it does every seven years by placing Halloween on a Friday.  Some half-hearted openings this odd weekend, and […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #48 of 2014 looks like $148 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 18% the norm for Thanksgiving weekend ($180 million) and down 24% from the same weekend last year.  Pretty weak. Opening at 3,654 theaters, Penguins of Madagascar from Fox and DreamWorks Animation is on track for a $26.9 million opening […]

The top 10 films Christmas Day 2014 totaled $71.2 million, well above the 12-year average of $55.9 million for the day and above the very high December 25 totals the last two years: $67.2 million in 2013 and $68.1 million in 2014.  Only 2009 had a higher Christmas Day: $82.6 million in the season of […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #4 of 2015 looks like $143 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above the norm for the fourth weekend of the year, which usually struggles to get above $100 million.  (See complete weekend track below.)  All credit goes to American Sniper, which is truly extraordinary.  As for the […]

  An oddity of this year’s box office is that while a few very big hits (American Sniper, 50 Shades of Grey, The SpongeBob Movie) have pushed the total 2015 take well above last year’s start, there have been no shortage of high-profile failures alongside them, including Mortdecai, Jupiter Ascending, Focus and Blackhat.  Add to […]

OPENINGS:  THE LONGEST RIDE (20th) tried to counterprogram Furious 7 with a Nicholas Sparks romance, but didn’t even muss the blockbuster’s hair with a $13.5M opening.  That’s better than the lousy $10M start for last year’s Sparks adaptation The Best Of Me, and that’s the sum total of the positives in the context of other […]

  OPENINGS:  PITCH PERFECT 2 (Gold Circle/Universal) blew past even the highest of expectations, outgrossing the entire US run of its predecessor with a $70.3M weekend, and proving not to be all that frontloaded with a 12% Saturday drop.  In addition, with a gradual international roll-out in just 29 markets, the movie earned $26.9M, which […]