Back to barren summer theaters.  The 24th weekend of 2012 is looking like a very weak $122 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 17% from this weekend last year and down 21% from a more normal third weekend in June.  Both Rock of Ages and That’s My Boy proved to be incredibly weak. […]

With the Fourth of July falling on a Wednesday, most of the past week performed like weekend days, driving the seven-day domestic box office haul to one of the highest in recent memory. The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between July 2 and July 8 grossed an incredible […]

  Last night’s preliminary numbers for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Warners) turned out to be unduly optimistic, so the currently promising estimates for Saturday should be taken, for now, with a modicum of salt.  According to Deadline, Rises had an excellent 42% increase from Friday to Saturday, up to $25.6M, and making likely a 2d […]

The 33rd weekend of 2012 is looking like $129 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, not as strong as we forecast Wednesday (because Expendables 2 is not as big as we forecast) but still up well over 20% from comparable weekends the past several years.             The Expendables 2 from […]

This weekend will be respectable — the top 12 films should total around $93 million, very typical for this weekend most years, although down 13% from last year when Moneyball and Dolphin Tale both opened.  Four films from very different genres open this weekend, none of which should break out significantly.  Also, The Master expands […]

  With what appears to be the exception of a sensational hold for Argo, this weekend is looking fairly lackluster, according to preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline.  PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 (Paramount) of course, will dominate the weekend, and because of its bargain-basement cost, it will reap plenty of profit for the studio.  But at $15M […]

  The final chapter in the TWILIGHT saga, BREAKING DAWN PART 2, began its swoop through the boxoffice last night, and earned $30.4M.  This is, unquestionably, a ton of money, and technically–very narrowly–a record for the Twilight franchise, just barely beating out Breaking Dawn Part 1‘s $30.3M (although nowhere near the all-time midnight record $43.5M […]

  It’s impossible to know at this point how the unspeakable events in Newtown on Friday will affect family behavior over the weekend, and even though this tragedy, unlike the Aurora massacre in July, has no direct connection to movies or theaters, the crowds that might have attended matinees of a four-quadrant event like THE […]