OPENINGS:  ETERNALS (Marvel/Disney) opened at the low end of expectations with $71M, not a surprise given its lousy reviews (48% on Rotten Tomatoes, unprecedented for the MCU) and blah audience exit polls.  Even so, that makes it the #4 US opening of the pandemic era, and all of those quartet members are Marvel movies.  […]

>Solid opening for Bridesmaids, Priest disappoints, and Thor remains #1.  Nonetheless, the weekend is down only a bit versus last year, when Robin Hood opened and Iron Man 2’s second weekend was #1. The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates now show that Bridesmaids should finish its run with $90 million domestic (with upside), while Priest should […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #44 of 2013 looks like $123 million for the top 12 films, now up 3% from the same weekend’s average in recent years. Opening at 3,407 theaters Friday, Ender’s Game from Lionsgate/Summit grossed $9.8 million Friday and $10.8 million Saturday, still on track for a $28.0 million opening weekend (very close to the $28.5 […]

  OPENINGS:  With little else new around, DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO (Crunchyroll/Sony) seized the weekend with $20.1M, a bit lower than the studio’s Dragon Slayer: Mugen Train, which opened with $21.2M at about half the number of theaters.  Dragon Ball, like most anime titles, was heavily skewed to the M18-34 audience, and it may […]

  OPENINGS:  As we forecast on Friday night, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (TSG/20th) isn’t just running lower than 2014’s Days of Future Past, it’s also been more frontloaded.  20th is projecting a $65M 3-day weekend and $80M over 4 days, but Apocalypse dropped 23% from Friday to Saturday, compared to 18% for Future Past, and Apocalypse‘s Saturday […]

  HOLDOVERS:  Pandemic box office champion SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME (Marvel/Columbia/Sony) had no trouble keeping its throne over New Year’s weekend, down 38% to $52.7M, with a running US total of $609.9M.  The January ahead is sparse on competition, so the film should top $700M, which will make it the #2 MCU title in the […]

The weekend looks like a decent $125 million for the top 12 films, a little better than it looked yesterday (now slightly beating the multi-year average for this weekend).  Each of the three openers had good Saturday grosses and are exceeding the predictions in Wednesday’s  ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Forecast. The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Final estimates for films opening wide this […]

  OPENINGS:  It’s possible to make money on Super Bowl weekend, as hits like Dear John ($30.5M), Taken ($24.7M) and Chronicle ($22M) have shown.  But MISS BALA (Columbia/Sony) didn’t have what it takes, with a sluggish $6.7M start.  The 5% Saturday bump suggests that word of mouth isn’t bad, but next weekend it will have […]