Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #18 of 2014 looks like $144 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 25% from the norm for this weekend.   Opening at 4,324 theaters, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Sony grossed $35.5 million late Thursday through Friday, putting the film on track for a $92.3 million opening weekend (somewhat above our […]

Weekend #22 of 2014 is looking like a solid $172 million for the top 12 films this weekend, 26% above the norm for this weekend and 7% above the same weekend last year.   Opening at over 3,800 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Maleficent from Disney should average […]

  As espected with a sequel, THINK LIKE A MAN TOO (Screen Gems/Sony) took a dip on its 2d day of release, and after virtually tying the opening day of the first Think with $13.2M on Friday it fell, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, about 15% on Saturday to $10.5M (the original Think had gained 9% on its first […]

  OPENINGS:  LUCY (Universal) is claiming the lowest Sunday drop in the Top 10, so the studio’s $44M weekend estimate may come down a bit tomorrow, but it’s still a very solid hit for all concerned.  That’s especially true for Scarlett Johansson, who now has non-Avenger action movie bona fides.  The only question is whether […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Again, no changes to the year to date studio ranking of worldwide box office.  20th Century Fox remains #1 and also had the largest gain this week (an okay $87 million weekly gain, mostly because of continued overseas grosses of How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes).  Disney, […]

  OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) was just a tad below the opening day for Denzel Washington’s Safe House, $12.6M vs. $13.6M.  That suggests a $36-37M weekend, which would be the 3rd highest of his career, behind only Safe House and American Gangster.  More impressively, it continues a remarkable record in which every movie he’s made […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is still running -5% behind last year and -3% below the average for this point the past four years ($7.930 billion).  Over the same […]

Weekend #48 of 2014 is looking like $165 million for the top 12 films this weekend, down 8% from the norm for Thanksgiving weekend but down a bigger 15% from the same weekend last year (when Frozen opened its long run). Opening at over 3,600 theaters Wednesday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening […]