2018, as is often the case, is kicking off at the box office, with low-budget horror, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY (Blumhouse/Universal) easily took Friday with $12.5M (including $2M from Thursday night).  That’s a very solid number, not up to the $16.8M for January 2012’s The Devil Inside, […]

  JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (Legendary/Perfect World/Universal) finally arrived in the US with a $58.4M opening day ($15.3M from Thursday night), according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  If Fallen Kingdom follows the same trajectory as the 2015 Jurassic World reboot, that should mean a $145M weekend, and a $400M+ eventual US total.  That’s a lot […]

  OPENINGS:  3-day weekend totals were largely in line with where they were headed on Friday night.  COCO (Pixar/Disney) settled in at $49M ($71.2M since Wednesday).  On a 3-day basis, that was almost exactly the same as Tangled‘s $48.8M, suggesting that Coco should land at $200M in the US.  That would put it in the […]

  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 […]

  OPENINGS:  GODZILLA VS KONG (Warners, also on HBO Max) had the biggest US theatrical debut since the onset of pandemic closings with $48.5M over 5 days ($32.2M for the 3-day weekend).  It will clearly roar past Tenet‘s $57.9M to become the highest-grossing title in over a year, and could pass $100M in the US.  […]

  OPENINGS:  KONG: SKULL ISLAND (Legendary/Tencent/Warners) is playing as a quasi-family movie, perhaps in response to the R-rated Logan and Get Out.  That gave it a much more muscular Saturday than similar big-budget monster movies, up 19% on Saturday where Godzilla fell 16% and Pacific Rim dropped 13%.  With that boost, Kong should hit its […]

  Once again, Gone Girl was vanquished for a day by a horror movie, but will almost certainly rebound to take the weekend. OPENINGS:  DRACULA UNTOLD (Legendary/Universal) gets the partnership between Universal and its new co-producer/financier Legendary (which for years was parked at Warners) off to a solid start.  Dracula‘s Friday results were underreported in […]

  OPENINGS:  TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS (Nickelodeon/Movie Media Group/Alibaba/Paramount) opened 46% below the TMNT reboot 2 years ago at $35.3M.  That suggests a $100M US total, and with $250M+ in production/marketing costs, the bulk of that will have to be recovered overseas.  So far, it’s earned $34M in 40 territories, not […]