The 38th weekend of 2012 is looking like $73 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 31% from the same weekend last year and now the third weekend in a row down significant double-digit percentages.  The past three weekends have averaged a 24% decline from the same weekend in 2011 and averaged a similar […]

  Valentine’s Day is an enormous moviegoing event each year, so it remains to be seen whether Friday’s brisk business will translate to the rest of the holiday weekend. OPENINGS:  ABOUT LAST NIGHT (Screen Gems/Sony) barely missed 1st place with $13M on Friday, beaten by $30K, but it’s off to an impressive start, especially when […]

  OPENINGS:  The most hyped box office weekend of the year delivered and then some.  BARBIE (Mattel/Warners) burst into theaters with $155M, technically the best of the year (although the $146.4M for Super Mario Bros came after a Wed-Thurs start that had already brought in $58.3M).  Among the many records set by the blockbuster were […]

>Overseas box office show big gains for Puss in Boots and Real Steel, now at $142 million and $186 million overseas to date, respectively.  Both films are solidly in the top five films worldwide, approaching $300 million worldwide each. New Year’s Eve has $13 million overseas to date, but it only stands at $44 million […]

  OPENINGS:  After a 15% Saturday bump to $16.7M, RIDE ALONG (Universal) seems assured of beating Cloverfield‘s $46.1M record for the 4-day Martin Luther King Day weekend (Ride Along is reporting $41.2M for Fri-Sun, where Cloverfield was at $40.1M).  Cloverfield ultimately reached $80M in the US, and that’s about where Ride Along should end up […]

>The monolith that is TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON has started its weekend.  With a combination of 9PM shows (that were supposedly all in 3D) and midnights, reports are that the picture made $13.5M last night.  This is considerably less than the $16M for midnight Transformers 2 shows, although more than the original Transformers ($8.8M […]

  OPENINGS:  The big studios wanted no part of the weekend after Thanksgiving, and the only arrivals were a pair of fringe indies.  Even for a micro-budgeted horror product, INCARNATE (High Top/Blumhouse/Universal) was a flop at $2.7M. In a barely-wide release at 639 theatres, the Christian-themed BELIEVE (Freestyle) attracted no one outside the flock (and […]

> John Carter traveled to Mars; the movie with his name also looks beyond the US for some help. OPENINGS:  JOHN CARTER (Disney) may or may not have grossed over $30M this weekend–we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.  (Disney is claiming a not-unreasonable 31% Sunday drop, but it would take only a small slip to […]