Based on Friday’s grosses, the final weekend of 2013 looks like a great finish: $193 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up substantially from the same weekend last year (see comparisons to previous years at the bottom).  The new films this long weekend are actually not breaking through in a big way: it’s the […]

  This weekend’s boxoffice wasn’t so much a case of multiple winners as none at all. OPENINGS:  The closest thing to a victor was END OF WATCH (Open Road), which did about what one might have expected with a projected $13M total and a $4800 per-theatre average.  Its 11% Friday-to-Saturday bump wasn’t much to speak […]

> The tiny 3% drop in PUSS IN BOOTS‘ second weekend is truly remarkable, and could well lead to studios adopting DreamWorks’ strategy in the future of opening an animated movie on Halloween weekend and then having a de facto 2d opening the following week.  (However, the picture is still running $13M below Megamind‘s 10 […]

  OPENINGS:  IRON MAN 3 (Disney) was exactly where it was expected to be, its $68.3M US opening day (the 8th largest ever) considerably higher than Iron Man 2‘s $51.2M, but not quite in a league with The Avengers’ $80.8M.  That should mean a $170M-ish weekend.  Meanwhile, Iron 3 has made a spectacular $388.3M internationally […]

  OPENINGS:  Can the 2d-biggest US opening of all time fairly be considered a mild disappointment?  Certainly AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (Marvel/Disney), for all its giant $187.7M start, underperformed compared to widespread expectations, not only failing to beat the $207.4M opening of The Avengers, but coming in $20M below that mark despite 5 more hours […]

Weekend #25 of 2015 is looking like $202 million for the top 12 films this weekend, significantly above the norm for the same weekend the past few years and way above last year’s misfire on this weekend (see comparisons below). Inside Out from Disney should open with a $70.0 million three-day weekend. Early reviews at RottenTomatoes are unanimous: 100% positive overall […]

Updated international box office chart:

  Note:  Holdover titles tended to decline less than usual because comparisons include last week’s Easter Sunday. OPENINGS:  BORN IN CHINA (Disney) was at the top of an unimpressive group of debuts this weekend with $5.1M, narrowly ahead of the $4.6M for Monkey Kingdom, the last in the studio’s “Disneynature” series of Earth Day wildlife […]