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:  I FEEL PRETTY (Voltage/H Brothers/STX) became the first Amy Schumer movie to dip on its 2nd day of release, indicating weak word of mouth.  Its $16.2M weekend put it in 3rd place for the weekend, with uncertain prospects.  STX only has the film in the US, with reported costs of $45M, which may […]

  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 […]

  OPENINGS:  ANT-MAN & THE WASP (Marvel/Disney) turned out to be rather front-loaded, with a 30% Saturday drop (compared to 14% for the 2nd day of Ant-Man).  That pushed the studio weekend estimate down to $76M, which is still 33% better than Ant-Man‘s debut, but at the low end for Marvel, ahead of only the […]

> The weekend studio projections (Friday and Saturday actual numbers plus a studio-generated estimate for Sunday’s business) are very similar to the early look at the weekend from yesterday.  Hop will lead the way, with Arthur and Hanna battling out for second place (a race that could go down to the wire Monday morning with […]

  OPENINGS:  WONDER WOMAN (RatPac/Wanda/Ten Cent/DC/Warners) is a big win with $100.5M in the US, and for the DC franchise, the 93% at Rotten Tomatoes may be almost as important a number.  It’s also worth noting that unusually, Warners has conservatively estimated Sunday with a 28% drop (by comparison, Guardians Vol 2, arguably with less […]

Based on Friday’s  and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #50 of 2013 looks like $139 million for the top 12 films from Friday-Sunday, not as strong as we had forecast and down $5 million from yesterday’s estimate but still up double digits in terms of percent increase over comparable weekends the past several years.   Opening at […]

  OPENINGS:  FIFTY SHADES FREED (Perfect World/Universal) declined a mild 17% from Fifty Shades Darker to $38.8M, suggesting that Freed will end up around $95M in the US  That wouldn’t be great compared to roughly $150M in production/marketing costs, but the Fifty Shades franchise has always made the bulk of its revenue overseas, and that’s […]