OPENINGS:  OUT OF THE FURNACE (Relativity) will do nothing to change the reputation of the first weekend in December as a terrible time to open a new movie.  Even in a more robust weekend, the grim quasi-art film, quasi-action thriller would have had a hard time (and the presence of Christian Bale didn’t help […]

The big movers overseas this past week were Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (up $151 million to $351 million to date overseas) and Skyfall (up $61 million to $568 million overseas to date).  Updated worldwide tracks for Twilight and the completely re-energized James Bond follow.     Entering the worldwide chart this week are Rise of the Guardians (starting at […]

  OPENINGS:  The $37M Friday for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney) was the highest ever in the month of April, ahead of Fast Five‘s $34.4M.  Fast Five fell 13% on Saturday to hit a $86.2M weekend, and Winter Soldier will hope to beat that.  Depending on word of mouth, it could get as high […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #45 of 2014 now looks like $149 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, still up 7% the norm for this weekend ($140 million) but lower than it appeared yesterday ($154 million) and now down -7% from the same weekend last year. Opening at 3,761 theaters, Big Hero […]

Based on Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #7 of 2013 is looking a touch better than yesterday: now $126 million for the top 12 films during the traditional Friday-Sunday period of this holiday weekend (only 2% behind the pace for the same weekend the last few years).         A Good Day to Die Hard from […]

  Its studio did everything in its corporate power to keep the quality of TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT (Huahua/Paramount) from infecting ticket sales, preventing any reviews from appearing until the projectors had started on the movie’s first paid screenings.  But audiences knew what was coming, and in the US, Transformers 5 will be by far […]

  OPENINGS:  With the pandemic raging throughout the country and about 20% fewer theatres open than last week, box office numbers plunged across the board.  There were no truly wide openings, but the Jackie Chan vehicle VANGUARD (Gravitas) opened at 1375 theatres with a low $400K start, a per-theatre weekend average of just $290. Similarly, […]

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 now +7% above last year and now +17% above the average for this point the past four years ($1.698 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have […]