> Hop will be–by far–Russell Brand’s biggest opening as a featured performer:  both Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Me To the Greek opened to around $17M.  All of which makes this week’s opening of Arthur, his first bona fide shot as a leading man, that much more interesting.  Be sure to read Mitch Metcalf’s Arthur […]

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 (1 point better than last week) and now -2% below the average at this point the past four years ($3.518 billion).  Over the same […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #11 of 2013 is the second weekend in a row up somewhat from prior years: $103 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday (up 6% from the same weekend last year).  Oz continues to carry Hollywood on its back.  Opening this weekend, Steve Carrell and Jim Carrey flopped in The […]

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between August 27 and September 2 grossed $133 million, fairly close to the same week last year (-2%) but up 7% from the four-year average for the week.  The past six weeks have actually been fairly close to the four-year average box […]

  Last year’s Thanksgiving weekend was the biggest ever, thanks to the combo of Catching Fire and Frozen, and while plenty of tickets were sold over the past few days, this year didn’t come close. OPENINGS:  THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (DreamWorks Animation/20th) was yet another piece of disappointing product for DreamWorks, which really needed to […]

And now the waiting game begins for Team Metcalf.  With all but one movie now open, the Metcalf slate now totals almost $1.1 billion to date, with a little but of upside remaining in Madagascar 3 and to some extent Prometheus. Team Salem’s top two films open very soon:  Brave from Pixar this Friday and Amazing Spider-Man […]

Based on Friday’s and  Saturday’s grosses, weekend #33 of 2014 now looks like a modest $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a little better than yesterday’s forecast ($124 million) and 11% above the norm for this weekend ($116 million) but still below our forecast ($140 million). Playing at 3,094 theaters, Let’s Be Cops from Fox […]

Not a bad weekend for the box office this weekend.  Overall business is up about 8% from the similar weekend average.  Three new movies opened (each with a different feel and target demographic target).  No big hits among the three, but three solid performances.       The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates for films opening […]