OPENINGS:  JURASSIC WORLD (Legendary/Universal) took its place in the history books with the biggest worldwide opening of all time, its $511.8M ahead of the final Harry Potter‘s $483.2M.  That particular record relies a bit on overseas distribution scheduling, since not every American blockbuster is approved for a China opening the same weekend that it […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio, including early 2018 dollars for films released later in 2017. We will start tracking the 2018 studio slates in a few weeks. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is still +7% above last […]

  OPENINGS:  THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (Illumination/Universal) quintupled the next-highest grosser of the weekend, with the biggest opening in US history for an animated non-sequel at $103.2M, easily passing last year’s $90.4M for Inside Out.  It remains to be seen if Pets can match Inside Out‘s nearly 4x multiple, but whatever happens from here, […]

  OPENINGS:  We’ll find out tomorrow if the studio’s $100.2M US weekend estimate for THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (Universal), which counts on an influx of post-church Easter Sunday Christians, will slip into double figures.  But even if the number holds, it’s down 32% from the Furious 7 opening.  If Universal’s hypothesis that this decline […]

  OPENINGS:  Despite the strong weekend, it’s a bit troubling that GROWN UPS 2 (Sony) fell 11% on Saturday (the original Grown Ups rose 2% on its 2d day), suggesting frontloading and less than great word of mouth.  That may place the studio’s estimated Sunday drop of 21% and $42.5M weekend total in doubt, but […]

  OPENINGS:  If a movie like THE BUTLER (Weinstein) can make back most of its production cost in a single weekend (and The Help did the same 2 years ago), why aren’t there more movies like The Butler?  The answer is the other side of the coin of “Why are there so many action-fantasy adventure […]

  OPENINGS:  David Cronenberg is a venerated filmmaker, but not a source of many box office hits:  in a career that spans more than 4 decades, his highest-grossing film in the US is still 1986’s The Fly at $40.5M (a little over $100M adjusted for inflation).  That won’t change with his brooding and frequently grotesque […]

  This was the weekend that the COVID-19 crisis hit the box office in earnest, and while that fact pales in importance compared to the human cost of the pandemic, it’s going to represent a multi-billion dollar hit that will reverberate through the lives of many throughout the world.  As bad as the numbers below […]