>Through Sunday, worldwide box office results show that The Smurfs have moved up to #10 among 2011 releases (out of 88 wide-release films this year to date).  Rise of the Planet of the Apes is now at #12, about $70 million behind The Smurfs.  Although Rise will out-gross Smurfs domestically, the little blue guys are […]

>The fourth Pirates of the Caribbean opens just below forecast, although not quite at the higher end of expectations that Disney was rooting for.  Bridesmaids has a very good second weekend Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides should open with $92 million this weekend and is on a pace to finish with $260 million […]

  HOLDOVERS:  Once again, there were no significant openings this week.  And once again, the lack of competition didn’t help WW84 (DC/Warners, also on HBO Max), which had the worst hold of the top titles, down 46% to $3M.  It now seems unlikely to get much past $40M in the US, and it’s no longer […]

The 36th weekend of 2012 is looking like $50 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, near recent record lows for box office volume.  Equally weak weekends were last seen in 2003 and 2008.  The Possession is holding on to the top spot this weekend (with less than $10 million for the #1 film, yikes), […]

  With Melissa McCarthy as solo lead, SPY (20th) isn’t opening at quite the level as The Heat, which featured a McCarthy/Sandra Bullock combo, as preliminary numbers at Deadline show a $10.6M opening day (including $1.5M from Thursday) compared to Heat‘s $13.7M.  Still, that puts Spy in line to win the weekend with around $32M […]

>Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol opened with a narrow 425-theater preview domestically this weekend, but the fourth M:I opened in over two-thirds of the international markets this weekend and already has taken in $68 million overseas.  The other domestic openers this weekend had fairly limited international bookings the first weekend.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of […]

  OPENINGS:  NOAH (Paramount/Regency) got the start it wanted and needed with $15.2M on Friday ($1.6M of that from Thursday night), which–unless word of mouth sinks the ark–should mean a $40M weekend.  The darkly revisionist biblical spectacle also has $28.3M overseas, where it’s still in just 21 markets, so for now it’s on track to […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #51 of 2014 now looks like $127 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up slightly from yesterday’s estimate ($126 million) and now up 5% from the norm for this weekend ($121 million) but down -8% from the same weekend last year.   Continuing at 3,875 theaters, The Hobbit: […]