SHAZAM (DC/New Line/Warners) is going to win a bleak weekend at the box office, and even it doesn’t have much to boast about.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have it dropping 68% from last Friday to $6.6M, worse than the Friday-to-Friday drops for Wonder Woman (-59%) and Justice League (-57%).  A $23M weekend would put […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -8% below last year’s comparable span (one point better than two weeks ago) and now -1% below this point the past four years ($5.728 billion).  Over the same period, […]

  WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -5% below last year’s comparable span and still +1% above this point the past four years ($8.658 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $23.2 billion […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2020 film slates by studios (films entering wide release in the 2020 calendar year). BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2020 is now -2% below last year’s comparable span (7 points worse than last week) and -17% below this point averaged over the […]

  OPENINGS:  TOM & JERRY (Warners, also on HBO Max) had a solid opening for this moment in time with $13.7M, an especially impressive number since the movie is available at no extra cost to anyone with an HBO Max subscription.  If Tom & Jerry can have the kind of sustained run that other family […]

  OPENINGS:  UNCHARTED (Columbia/Sony) had a strong start with $44.2M ($51M with the holiday Monday), once again largely due to the M18-34 demo, but also suggesting that Tom Holland may be emerging as an action star even without webs to spin.  (Of course it didn’t hurt that Uncharted followed his mega-smash Spider-Man so closely that […]

  OPENINGS:  Following several months of strong showings from the horror genre, PREY FOR THE DEVIL (Lionsgate) arrived at $7M to mop up the Halloween weekend remainder.  That was around the expected result, and considering that Prey was a low-budget effort with little national marketing, it might be enough to set a pace for minimal […]

> Rise of the Planet of the Apes should open easily at #1 with over $43 million.  With broadly positive reviews behind it, this prequel should have decent holds in the following few weeks.  The Smurfs should slide into #2 with a decent second week decline ($21 million, down 41%).  Fighting for #3 should be […]