> The Martin Luther King holiday weekend, a relatively small one for Hollywood because many people work on Monday, begins. UNIVERSAL: The studio made the fairly extraordinary decision to sit out the holiday movie season entirely, presumably because they didn’t think any of their product could compete.  They did, however, spend a lot of money […]

  OPENINGS:  WRECK IT FALPH (Disney) is proving itself to be a canny mix of kid-friendly action with a video game millieu that can appeal to adults.  It’s Walt Disney Animation’s most Pixar-ish production to date (although the divisions are separate within Disney, John Lasseter supervises both), and headed for a $50M+ opening.  What Ralph […]

  OPENINGS:  Almost all the “early Friday” numbers turned out to be overly optimistic, but THE HEAT (20th) is still having a great opening, with a $13.6M first day that should put it in the neighborhood of a $37M weekend.  That puts it ahead of Melissa McCarthy’s $34.6M opening with Identity Thief, and remarkably enough, […]

  Note:  all holdovers will show unusually sharp Friday-to-Friday declines due to Valentine’s Day last week, and should recover somewhat over the course of the weekend. OPENINGS:  3 DAYS TO KILL (Relativity), with a $4M Friday and likely $12M weekend, won’t accomplish its goal of establishing Kevin Costner as the next elder statesman action-hero a […]

  OPENINGS:  Congratulations and condolences to THE HUNGER GAMES:  MOCKINGJAY PART 1 (Lionsgate), which had the biggest day of any movie this year–yet at $55M (slightly higher than Friday afternoon estimates had projected) was a surprising disappointment.  That number was well behind the $67.3M for the first Hunger Games and the $71M for Catching Fire, a […]

  Those waiting for Marvel to stumble will have to go on waiting.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, THOR: RAGNAROK (Marvel/Disney) had a $46M opening day (including $14.5M from Thursday night), the highest for any Marvel Universe title released outside the May-July corridor.  Opening day was up 44% from the start of Thor:  The […]

  JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3: PARABELLUM (Thunder Road/Summit/Lionsgate) marks a rarity these days, a solid and growing mid-level action franchise.  The first John Wick collected $5.4M on its first day and $14.4M for the weekend, the second was at $11M/$30.4M, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Parabellum‘s first day was at $22.5M (including $5.9M […]

> The full extent of theatre closings and other Hurricane Irene-related events isn’t yet known, so projections may be high at this point. That being said, this was never going to be a good weekend at the boxoffice:  in late August, the studios don’t open their heavy hitters.  What audiences there are continue to flock […]