With a franchise like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney), profitability isn’t at issue.  Guardians 2 carries around $350M in worldwide production/marketing costs, and it will be in hailing distance of financial success by Sunday.  The question is how the given installment ranks in terms of similar mega-competition and expectations.  Preliminary numbers at […]

  A piece of beloved genre IP that gets rave reviews is hard to beat, and the newest iteration of HALLOWEEN (Blumhouse/Miramax/Universal) is headed toward a huge opening.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline put Friday at $33M ($7.7M from Thursday night), and even allowing for the typical front-loading of sequels and horror movies, that should mean […]

> According to Deadline, ACT OF VALOR (Relativity) is reporting a mild 5% Saturday bump.  That’s modest, but still less frontloaded than The Expendables’ 10% drop on its 2d day, and if the number holds, could mean a $24M+ weekend.  GOOD DEEDS (Lionsgate/Summit) is looking better with around a 30% Saturday increase, comparing favorably with […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, Saturday was a step down from Good Friday’s boxoffice–and Easter Sunday is likely to be sharply worse.  GI JOE: RETALIATION (Paramount/MGM) fell from $15.5M to $15.2M on Saturday.  That’s a small drop, but normally a picture with strong word of mouth rises from Friday to Saturday.  (It is […]

  Day 2 for X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (20th) was down by a larger margin than expected, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, from $36M on Friday to $29-30M on Saturday.  If that number holds, it’ll be as much as a 20% drop, compared to 16% for Godzilla and 6% for Captain […]

  The real world, in the form of terrible reviews and dim word of mouth, caught up with BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (DC/RatPac/Warners) on Friday.  Actually, the signs had been there since midweek, although Warners and its box office pets had obscured the fact for a few days by comparing the daily results […]

  There’s a reason why Christopher Nolan may be, along with James Cameron, the last filmmaker who can truly demand blank checks from Hollywood.  His WWII recreation DUNKIRK (Warners), devoid of name stars (apologies to Harry Styles) but riding a tide of Oscar-level reviews, is already overperforming expectations with a $19.8M opening day (including $5.5M […]

  MISS BALA (Columbia/Sony) is the only new opening this Super Bowl weekend, but it’s failing to take advantage of its status.  Deadline‘s preliminary numbers have Miss Bala‘s opening day at $2.7M ($650K of that from Thursday night), and with Sunday’s box office due to crash for everyone, it may not reach $7M for the […]