Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #32 of 2014 looks like a very good $173 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above our forecast ($152 million) and 26% above the norm for this weekend ($138 million). Opening at 3,845 theaters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Paramount grossed $25.6 million through Friday and is on track for […]

>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 is opening just short of $140 million in its first weekend, while Happy Feet Two looks like a $22 million opening.  The top 12 films this weekend should do a combined $217 million, up 16% from the same […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +4% above last year and still +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.144 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $24.3 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

  OPENINGS:  David Cronenberg is a venerated filmmaker, but not a source of many box office hits:  in a career that spans more than 4 decades, his highest-grossing film in the US is still 1986’s The Fly at $40.5M (a little over $100M adjusted for inflation).  That won’t change with his brooding and frequently grotesque […]

International box office for 2013 releases through February 2, 2014.  Frozen has pushed past Hunger Games: Catching Fire, after passing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in the yearly worldwide rankings last week.  The Wolf of Wall Street (now #33 for the year) is putting some distance between it and American Hustle (still #41 worldwide).  While American Hustle is winning domestically, Wolf is dominating […]

  OPENINGS:  What are we to make of the $23M start for KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (Paramount/Apple)?  As serious 3+hour historical epics go, while it’s a small fraction of Oppenheimer‘s $82.5M launch, it’s better than the $22M 5-day opening for House of Gucci, and the $18.4M for 2013’s Scorsese/DiCaprio The Wolf of Wall Street […]

  OPENINGS:  FREAKY (Blumhouse/Universal) led the weekend at $3.7M.  It was the third consecutive weekend that a Universal-branded film opened at #1 (aided by the studio’s deal with AMC that allows its films to hit digital 3 weeks after theatrical release) and the fifth new #1 to open in the $3.1-4.1M range.  Like the others, […]

  Movie ticket sales were down significantly on December 31, as audiences found other things to do with their New Year’s Eves, but the results still gave Les Miserables a symbolic turnaround, putting it back in 2d place after a weekend behind Django Unchained.  Business should zoom today for the holiday finale, before settling into mundane […]