WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +3% above last year and now +8% above the average for this point the past four years ($2.455 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $6.8 billion […]

  OPENINGS:  SPECTRE (MGM/Columbia/Sony) had the #7 opening of the year at $73M… yet there are signs of trouble.  While Skyfall rose 11% on its 2d day of wide release, and Casino Royale gained 5%, Spectre fell by 5%, actually slightly worse than the lightly-regarded Quantum of Solace.  Since Spectre wasn’t more frontloaded than Skyfall, […]

  OPENINGS:  THE GRUDGE (Columbia/Sony) tried to take advantage of Hollywood’s early January fallow period, but at $11.3M, the reboot of a remake found few takers, far below the $29.6M for 2018’s Insidious: The Last Key, and also less than the $13.7M for 2017’s Underworld: Blood Wars and the $15M for 2015’s The Woman In […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +4% above last year and now +5% above the average for this point the past four years ($6.767 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $17.8 billion worldwide when […]

  OPENINGS:  We won’t really know the order of the weekend’s closely-bunched Top 3 movies until final numbers are released tomorrow, but since the default position of any studio with a new opening is to claim victory, the fact that AMERICAN MADE (Cross Creek/Universal) is currently in 2nd place with $17M can’t be a good […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now -1% below last year and now +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($5.137 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $13.5 billion worldwide […]

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 $9M start for THE MENU (Searchlight/Disney) was below the $10.1M launch of Barbarian–and The Menu cost about $20M more to produce.  Combine that with the fact that The Menu is really more of a very dark satire than a horror movie, and its prospects look questionable.  The film also opened in 36 […]