OPENINGS:  AS ABOVE/SO BELOW (Universal) cost just $5M to produce, but its big-studio marketing campaign will add at least $30M to that, and after a $3.2M Friday, it’s headed for $9.5M by Sunday and $11.5M for the 4-day holiday, which will likely give it $20M at best for its entire US theatrical run.  Those […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #40 of 2014 looks like $142 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, even better than yesterday’s estimate ($129 million) and now 37% above the norm for this weekend ($104 million).  A great start for the fall movie season with two new films opening to different demographics and […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   Scroll down for domestic and overseas grosses for each film individually so far in 2014. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2014 is still running -5% behind last year and -3% below the average for this point the past four years ($8.058 billion).  Over the same […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #49 of 2014 looks like $69 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down 11% the norm for this weekend ($78 million) and down 20% from the same weekend last year.   Opening at a mere 589 theaters, The Pyramid from 20th Century Fox is on track for a $1.0 million opening three-day […]

  UPDATE:  The release of THE INTERVIEW continues to be improvisational, and contrary to regular practice–as well as Sony’s previously expressed plans–the studio announced on Sunday that in addition to its $2.8M take from independent theatres, the film earned $15M from online viewing in the Wed-Sat period.  However, Sony didn’t specify how that amount was […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #5 of 2015 now looks like $87 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, somewhat above the norm for this weekend but not as strong as our optimistic forecast.   Opening at 2,893 theaters Friday, Project Almanac from Paramount is on track for an $8.5 million opening three-day weekend (well below […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +4% above last year and now +6% above the average for this point the past four years ($1.638 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $4.8 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office […]

  OPENINGS:  PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 (MGM/Sony/Columbia) was at the high end of diminished expectations with $24M.  That’s roughly 25% below the $31.8M start for the first Paul Blart, not a surprise considering that the Blart franchise was far from universally beloved.  The question will be whether Blart 2 can have anything like its […]