OPENINGS:  Despite the strong weekend, it’s a bit troubling that GROWN UPS 2 (Sony) fell 11% on Saturday (the original Grown Ups rose 2% on its 2d day), suggesting frontloading and less than great word of mouth.  That may place the studio’s estimated Sunday drop of 21% and $42.5M weekend total in doubt, but […]

  OPENINGS:  The production budget for 2 GUNS (Universal) was funded by producers Emmett/Furla and Foresight Entertainment, with Universal just on the hook for marketing and distribution.  In addition, the overseas distribution is being handled by other studios.  All of this limits Universal’s risk and also its upside, and since the movie had a $10M […]

  OPENINGS:  LONGLEGS (Neon) captured the zeitgeist, successfully delivering the marketing message that it was the scariest horror movie in recent memory.  The result was  a$22.6M weekend, which set a new Neon record by a wide margin, and also marked the year’s highest non-franchise start for the genre.  Production and marketing costs for Longlegs reportedly […]

  Preliminary box office numbers at Deadline give Friday, as expected, to CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (Sony), and it will easily win the weekend as well.  Its $10M opening day is above the original Cloudy in 2009 ($8.1M) but below last year’s Hotel Transylvania ($11M), and with a sequel’s usual frontloading, it’s […]

  Amid its very public internal tumult today, Deadline managed to post some preliminary box office numbers, and if they hold up, BAD GRANDPA (Paramount) will take over first place for the weekend.  Its reported $11.5M Friday (including $1.4M from Thursday night) is only about half of the opening day for the last Jackass (which […]

  With shows that began at 8PM last night, THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) earned $25.3M, and as is often the case with initial numbers, they can be read in several ways.  On the one hand, the result is considerably higher than the $19.7M Thursday night gross for the first Hunger Games–but that was […]

  The franchise spin-off PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (Paramount) pulled in $1.2M at 10PM shows last night.  That was far below the $4.5M that Paranormal Activity 4 made on its Thursday in October 2012, but it was on par with the $1.15M earned by Texas Chainsaw when it opened on the first Thursday of […]

  Even by Super Bowl Weekend standards, this one is likely to be dim. OPENINGS:  Despite aggressive preliminary estimates, THAT AWKWARD MOMENT (Focus/Universal) couldn’t even carry the day on Friday with $3.9M, and seems to be heading for a $9.5M weekend (all titles will drop precipitously on Sunday because of the game).  Focus acquired Awkward […]