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 now -9% below last year’s comparable span (2 points worse than last week) and now -1% below the average at this point the past four years ($4.888 billion).  Over the […]

  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 now +1% above this point the past four years ($8.047 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $21.4 billion […]

  OPENINGS:  BIRDS OF PREY (DC/Warners) was supposed to be the year’s first tentpole smash, but at $33.3M in the US, it was a dismal disappointment, by far the lowest start for this generation of DC movie properties.  It was also weak overseas with $48M in all major markets except Japan and China (where of […]

  HOLDOVERS:  Once again, there were no significant openings this week.  And once again, the lack of competition didn’t help WW84 (DC/Warners, also on HBO Max), which had the worst hold of the top titles, down 46% to $3M.  It now seems unlikely to get much past $40M in the US, and it’s no longer […]

  A few notes:  this week’s newcomers opened along a range of dates, including Tuesday night, Wednesday, Friday night and Saturday, and those scheduling decisions had an affect on the totals below.  Also, the fact that Friday was Christmas Eve lowered the day’s ticket sales, probably by 30% or so.  (Something similar will apply to […]

  OPENINGS:  With little else new around, DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO (Crunchyroll/Sony) seized the weekend with $20.1M, a bit lower than the studio’s Dragon Slayer: Mugen Train, which opened with $21.2M at about half the number of theaters.  Dragon Ball, like most anime titles, was heavily skewed to the M18-34 audience, and it may […]

> This weekend will feature a Pixar sequel aimed at kids and their parents, while young adults and older teens are the bullseye for an R-rated comedy starring Cameron Diaz, the queen of movies released the last weekend of June.  The weekend overall is looking like it will be slightly above this weekend last year. […]

  OPENINGS:  FAST X (Universal) arrived with $67.5M.  In the US, that was slightly below the $70M for F9, one of the first big-ticket movies to brave a wide pandemic-era release in May 2021.  In terms of the franchise as a whole (leaving aside spinoff Hobbes & Shaw), Fast X was the 7th highest of […]