Proving, once again, that opening night exit polls are all but meaningless, preliminary numbers at Deadline have NOAH (Paramount/Regency) rising as much as 20% from Friday to Saturday despite a “C” grade that supposedly predicted poisonous word of mouth.  In fact, for a non-family release, a 20% Saturday bump is excellent–by way of comparison, […]

  Although some films have opened well against the Super Bowl, both counterprogramming (the Hannah Montana concert movie and Dear John) and playing toward the action genre (Taken and Chronicle), as a rule the studios stay away, and that was the case this year.  The only wide opening was the low-budget horror flick WINCHESTER (CBS/Lionsgate), […]

> Deadline is reporting that Saturday’s boxoffice for THE HUNGER GAMES is heading for $50M.  This is obviously a very preliminary figure–some late night west coast shows haven’t even started yet, much less been reported back to the studio.  But if the number holds, it would mean that Hunger Games is an even more phenomenal […]

  We won’t have confirmed Saturday numbers for several more hours (or final figures until Monday), but based on preliminary grosses at Deadline, DIVERGENT (Summit/Lionsgate) held surprisingly well on its second day of release, down just 14% to $19.7M.  That would be far better than the Day 2 drop for the original Twilight (down 41%), […]

  For the third consecutive weekend, BLACK PANTHER (Marvel/Disney) is having its way with the box office.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have Panther down 43% from last Friday to $16.3M, which should give it a $62M weekend, bringing its US total close to $500M.  That will put its 17-day total well ahead of the $457.7M […]

  SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMAN (Universal) had a 5% Friday-to-Saturday bump, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, which doesn’t say much for its word of mouth (the dreaded Battleship went up 11% on its second day of release).  That should still get Snow safely into the mid-$50Ms for the weekend, and now, like most […]

  Rebooting an aged horror franchise can be tough.  Recent attempts to bring back Alien, Scream and Friday the 13th have faltered, and now Saw, rechristened as JIGSAW (Lionsgate), isn’t off to much of a start.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $7.5M, much lower than the $10.7M for Saw 3D, the last […]

    So much for front-loading. The preliminary Saturday number for THE AVENGERS (Disney), as reported by Deadline, is genuinely extraordinary.  If it holds up, Avengers will have one of the best 2d day holds of a mega-opening film in history, and be well on its way to the best opening weekend ever.  The current […]