OPENINGS:  HUNTER KILLER (Millenium/Summit Premiere/Lionsgate) had a weak $6.7M start, and probably won’t reach $20M in the US, not even enough to pay for the costs of its US release, and a low for a Gerard Butler action movie.  Its international campaign has a sluggish $4M so far, with $3.2M this weekend in 16 […]

  OPENINGS:  In the US, NO TIME TO DIE (UA/MGM) opened at $56M, at the low end of expectations–and “expectations” are usually already set low so that the press will report that a film has “overperformed”–and below the last three Bond films (Quantum of Solace $67.5M, Skyfall $88.4M, Spectre $70.4M).  Obviously the pandemic is a […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #5 of 2015 now looks like $87 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, somewhat above the norm for this weekend but not as strong as our optimistic forecast.   Opening at 2,893 theaters Friday, Project Almanac from Paramount is on track for an $8.5 million opening three-day weekend (well below […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #7 of 2015 looks like a terrific $196 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well above the norms for this weekend and even better than it looked yesterday ($188 million estimate based on Friday’s grosses).   Opening at 3,646 theaters Friday, Fifty Shades of Grey from Focus/ Universal is on […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #19 of 2014 now looks like $129 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, $2 million higher than yesterday’s estimate and now down 8% from the norm for this weekend (somewhat better than we expected due to the impressive strength of Neighbors).   Opening at 3,279 theaters, Neighbors from Universal grossed $19.6 million […]

  OPENINGS:  The answer to the question of whether the Day 2 drop for SUICIDE SQUAD (RatPac/DC/Warners) would be as bad as the one for Batman v Superman turned out to be no–it was worse.  Suicide plunged 41% on Saturday, compared to BvS‘s 38%.  That’s the kind of drop usually associated with the hugely-frontloaded Twilight series, […]

  OPENINGS:  KNOCK AT THE CABIN (Universal) won the eternal footnote that it was the film to finally dethrone Avatar 2 at the top of the box office, but its $14.2 start was at the low end of expectations, below the $16.8M for 2021’s Old and thus M. Night Shyamalan’s lowest opening since his pre-Sixth Sense […]

  OPENINGS:  The second entry in the studio’s experiment with split theatrical/HBO Max distribution THE LITTLE THINGS (Warners) arrived with $4.8M in theatres, on the higher end of recent action movie openings ($3.1M for The Marksman, $4M for Unhinged), although of course paltry by pre-pandemic standards.  In addition, the film launched overseas with $2.8M from […]