> Based on the preliminary numbers at Deadline, the race between CHRONICLE (20th) and THE WOMAN IN BLACK (CBS) is still too close to call at $21-22M each.  No matter who claims victory on Sunday morning, the final weekend result will depend on how the films are each treated by Super Bowl Sunday, and may […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #38 of 2014 looks like $91 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 6% above the norm for this weekend ($86 million). Opening at 3,604 theaters, The Maze Runner from 20th Century Fox grossed $11.3 million Friday and is on track for a $31.0 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below […]

  OPENINGS:  The box office was boosted in general by Veterans Day, which gave many Americans a 3-day weekend, but ARRIVAL (FilmNation/Sony/Paramount) was still notably impressive with a $24M weekend at a mid-wide 2317 theatres.  Its word of mouth remains to be seen (it dropped 4% on Saturday), but it seems to be in good […]

  Everything has broken right for JOKER (BRON/Village Roadshow/DC/Warners).  Its combination of gold-standard IP with a gritty, violent, R-rated aesthetic has been largely accepted critically and earned it film festival kudos, and it’s had the benefit of controversy about its potential to stir up real-life trouble without (so far) any actual incidents that could drive […]

  The news didn’t get better for any of the weekend’s openings on Saturday, according to early numbers at Deadline–and that’s before the effect, if any, of Sunday’s east coast storms.  ARGO (Warners) beat them all with its 3rd weekend $12.5M, down under 25% from last weekend.  CLOUD ATLAS (Warners) was considerably behind, struggling to […]

  CINDERELLA (Disney) had an enchanted Friday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, with $23M (that includes $2.3M from Thursday night), and since its target audience is all about weekend matinees, it should be at $70M and perhaps even $75M by Sunday.  That would be better than the $69.4M opening for Maleficent, which had a […]

  OPENINGS:  NIGHTCRAWLER (Open Road) and Ouija are in a dead heat for the weekend title, with Nightcrawler claiming a temporary $9000 edge at $10.909M.  We won’t know the real winner until tomorrow, but Ouija is already admitting a 52% Sunday drop, while Nightcrawler maintains that it will only fall 35% today.  That number is […]

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, we have a change to report in the Team Weil slate for the ShowBuzzDaily Summer Movie Draft.  Paramount has decided to push G.I. Joe: Retaliation out of the summer to March 29, 2013 to allow for a 3D conversion.  Absolutely, nothing wrong the film — nothing to see here, they […]