June 6th, 2019
It was a bad week on the theater average chart with only one film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, in the $10,000 club. That film earned an average of $11,630 during its opening weekend. The best limited release was Echo in the Canyon with an average of $6,915 in 14 theaters during its second weekend of release. The best new limited release was Mayday Life with an average of $5,971 in 8 theaters.
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May 9th, 2019
Avengers: Endgame remained on top spot on the theater average chart with an average of $31,614. This isn’t that far behind Captain Marvel’s $35,599 average it earned during its opening weekend. The only other member of the $10,000 club was Doubles vies, which is French for Two Vies. ... It’s been a while since I made a joke that bad and I’m not apologizing. That film earned an average of $14,927 in two theaters.
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April 29th, 2019
Avengers: Endgame was expected to break records with some high-end predictions going as high as $350 million. Its final weekend numbers actually topped the high end expectations, as it opened with $357.12 million. This is almost exactly $100 million more than the previous record, set this weekend last year by Avengers: Infinity War. In fact, it is significantly more than the previous record for an overall weekend, set a few years back by The Force Awakens et al. Needless to say, the overall box office rose considerably from last weekend, up 270% to $402 million. More importantly, this was 29% more than the same weekend last year and this one weekend put a serious dent in 2019’s deficit in the year-over-year comparisons. Granted, 2019 is still behind 2018’s pace by more than 11% or $420 million at $3.28 billion to $3.70 billion. I suspect May will also be a very good month in the year-over-year comparison so hopefully that gap will be more reasonable in a month’s time. I don’t think 2019 will catch up to 2018 any time soon, but if it can cut the deficit in raw dollars in half by the end of May, then I will be happy.
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April 23rd, 2019
Easter weekend gave box office watchers a few reasons to celebrate. The Curse of La Llorona topped expectations and earned first place with $26.35 million over the weekend. That’s a very strong debut for this time of year. Additionally, both Shazam and Captain Marvel held on amazingly well, which bodes well for their chances against Avengers: Endgame. Overall, the box office rose 1% from last weekend to $108 million. This was 14% lower than the same weekend last year, and it wasn’t Easter weekend last year. On a side note, I’ve seen some stories call this past weekend the worst Easter weekend in over a decade. However, this is misleading, as it was the first time Easter weekend was one weekend before the start of the Summer Blockbuster season. Avengers: Endgame opening on Friday had more to do with the weak box office than any other factor and if Endgame is as big as some box office analysts expect, then by this time next week, we will be talking about how quickly 2019 will turn things around rather than how bad 2019 has been. In the meantime, we’ve hopefully sunk to the low point in the year-over-year comparison, as 2019 is now behind 2018 by a $570 million or 17% margin at $2.84 billion to $3.41 billion.
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April 21st, 2019
The Curse of La Llorona is leading the way on the weekend chart with a surprising $26.51 million. Granted, this is the weakest opening in the The Conjuring franchise, while its reviews and B minus from CinemaScore suggest short legs. Also, Avengers: Endgame opens in just a handful of days, so it will be pushed into the smallest screens in most multiplexes very soon. That said, the film reportedly only cost $9 million to make and < HREF="https://www.the-numbers.com/market/distributor/Warner-Bros">Warner Bros.’ share of the opening weekend will be close to double that. Internationally, the film is opening even better with an estimated $30 million debut. On the downside, it is playing in 71 markets already, so it has very few major markets left to open in.
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April 20th, 2019
The Curse of La Llorona got off to a fantastic start on Friday with $11.8 million during its opening day. This is a stronger opening day than Pet Sematary managed, but not as strong as its preview numbers were in comparison to Pet Sematary, so it likely won’t have the same legs. This isn’t surprising, as its reviews are much worse and it is part of a long-running franchise. Both of those factors tend to shorten legs. On the positive side, it earned a B minus from CinemaScore, which is actually really good for a horror film. The Curse of La Llorona would have to have tragically short legs to not earn first place after a start like this. Look for an opening weekend of $26 million.
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April 19th, 2019
The Curse of La Llorona opened with $2.75 million in previews. This is more than Pet Sematary managed a couple of weeks ago. However, this film is earning much weaker reviews and, since it is part of a franchise, it could have shorter legs. That said, even with short legs, it should still top our prediction and earn first place for the weekend with about $20 million.
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April 19th, 2019
It’s Easter weekend and, while it is not a true long weekend, there are enough kids out of school to give the box office a boost. On the negative side, Avengers: Endgame comes out next weekend and no one wants to try to compete against that. Because of this, none of the three wide releases this weekend are in the top tier. The one with the biggest potential is The Curse of La Llorona, but it is also earning the worst reviews of the weekend. Breakthrough is the first film made by Fox to come out since the studio’s acquisition by Disney was finalized, so there’s some significance there. Finally there’s Penguins, a film I thought would be a hit, but isn’t garnering much attention. This is not a strong contingent of new releases and Shazam could remain on top. This weekend last year wasn’t Easter weekend, so maybe that will give 2019 the edge. I don’t think 2019 will win in the year-over-year competition, but hopefully it will at least be close.
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April 1st, 2019
March was a good month at the box office with most films beating expectations. The biggest hit was Captain Marvel, which is still on pace for $400 million domestically and may have crossed $1 billion worldwide by the time you read this. The biggest “miss” was Dumbo, but it is still going to top $100 million domestically with ease. This month, it is a battle between Avengers: Endgame and last year’s Infinity War. To be fair, A Quiet Place got last April off to a very fast start and Shazam! should do the same this year, so there will be more than one potential box office hit to talk about. That said, Endgame will almost certainly open with more than any other April release earns in total and if 2019 is going to cut into its deficit with 2018, it will be on the back of that one film.
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March 18th, 2019
Nature documentary opens Earth Day (April 17) ... Full Movie Details.
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