OPENINGS:  The most hyped box office weekend of the year delivered and then some.  BARBIE (Mattel/Warners) burst into theaters with $155M, technically the best of the year (although the $146.4M for Super Mario Bros came after a Wed-Thurs start that had already brought in $58.3M).  Among the many records set by the blockbuster were […]

>Preliminary numbers from Dec. 26 suggest that while business, as expected, was higher than Christmas Day, momentum may have slowed a bit. Some highlights: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL (Paramount): The Monday bump seems to be around 5-6%, lower than projected yesterday, but still enough to get the picture to $77M to date and a […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is now +7% above last year and now +8% above the average for this point […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #35 of 2015 looks like $63 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well below the norm for this weekend and reaching into record low territory (see track below). Opening at 1,135 theaters Friday, War Room from Sony is on track for a $10.5 million opening three-day weekend (double our $5.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier […]

  The occasional piece of youth-oriented counterprogramming aside, the studios don’t bring out their big guns for Super Bowl Weekend, since Sunday is destined to be deflated.  Even by those standards, though, this is looking like a dim few days. The decision to hold the Coen Brothers’ star-studded HAIL, CAESAR! (Universal) out of 2015 awards […]

  THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART I (Lionsgate) stabilized on Saturday, according to preliminary box office figures at Deadline.  The Day 2 drop was 23%, slightly better than the 25-26% Saturday drops for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.  However, at $42.1M, Mockingjay‘s Saturday was still considerably below the $50.4M/$52.6M of its predecessors, and it’s […]

    The midweek boxoffice path of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES has been oddly up and down.  Compared to the trajectory of The Dark Knight, it’s had a worse Monday, a better Tuesday, a worse Wednesday, and now a better Thursday, as Rises took in an additional $13.2M yesterday for a 7-day total of $225M.  Rises […]

Madagascar 3 has ballooned to $244 million overseas to date (up from $157 million through last week).  The third Madagascar has now tied the overseas take for the first Madagascar ($244.2 million) and is now gunning for the $423.9 million overseas total for Madagascar 2. Meanwhile Snow White and the Huntsman had a nice weekly gain to $189 million overseas to date (from […]