Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #35 of 2014 looks like $86 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, now 1% above the norm for this weekend ($85 million) but 8% below this weekend last year (detailed track below). Opening at 2,639 theaters, As Above/So Below from Universal grossed $3.2 million Friday and $2.8 million […]

> Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol remains at the top of the box office, and the other sequels (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked) are just behind.  After that, the non-sequels are finding it tough to break out.  Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has the best chance of breaking […]

  OPENINGS:  IF (Paramount) was at the low end of projections with $35M, although that was an improvement over where it seemed to be headed after Friday’s $10.4M.  The key was strong family turnout on Saturday, but while IF benefited from being the first major release for that demographic in the 11 weeks since Kung […]

> Mitch Metcalf will doubtless have more to say about this later today, but the weekend’s actual boxoffice totals have just been announced, and the surprise is that CARS 2 ended up almost $2M below the number Disney predicted yesterday, $66.1M rather than $68M.  This translates into a Sunday drop that was far heavier than […]

  CINDERELLA (Disney) had an enchanted Friday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, with $23M (that includes $2.3M from Thursday night), and since its target audience is all about weekend matinees, it should be at $70M and perhaps even $75M by Sunday.  That would be better than the $69.4M opening for Maleficent, which had a […]

  OPENINGS:  The theatrical box office continued to pick itself up off the floor this weekend with two high-performing R-rated action movies, which thrived despite an overlapping target audience and the availability of one on a streaming service.  MORTAL KOMBAT (Warners, also on HBO Max) emerged the victor with $22.5M for the weekend, and could […]

OPENINGS:  Here are the records FURIOUS 7 (Universal) has racked up:  #4 worldwide opening at $384M (behind the final Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and The Avengers)–although that may be cheating a bit because it opened in a few territories on Wed-Thurs–#3 international opening at $240M (behind the last Harry Potter and […]

>Another win for Katniss Everdeen. THE HUNGER GAMES: In just its 3rd weekend of release, and with plenty left in the tank, THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) hit $302.8M, and has already outgrossed every picture in the Twilight series. (Only 5 movies have gotten to $300M faster.) By this time next week, it will also have […]