April 25th, 2024
After two weeks of topping the domestic box office charts, Civil War’s reign will likely be over this weekend as a trio of newcomers make their way into North American theaters. The dystopian action-thriller has taken in just over $48 million in its first 13 days, and should equal its $50 million budget by the end of the weekend. This week sees the release of Zendaya’s Challengers, which looks to have the best shot of becoming the latest box office champ. We once again don’t have an official count for Civil War but we expect it to be a tight race for the widest release this week.
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April 11th, 2024
For the past two weeks Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has enjoyed a prime seat atop the box office charts, racking up $140 million from North American ticket sales in its first 13-days. This week, however, will present the biggest test to date for the iconic movie monsters as dystopian action-thriller Civil War arrives in cinemas.
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April 4th, 2024
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire stomped into theaters last weekend, and crushed it, with just over $80 million in its first three days, despite playing in fewer than 4,000 locations. It scored even better overseas, taking in over $115 million from 63 international markets for a worldwide start of $195.1 million while easily cruising to number one in North America and abroad. Week two will be a closer contest however with two new wide releases making their theatrical debuts.
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March 31st, 2024
Warner Bros. is projecting an $80-million opening for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire as of Sunday morning. If it hold on to that number (and, spoiler alert, our model thinks it will fall fractionally short), it’ll be the second film from the studio to surpass $80 million on debut during March, following Dune: Part Two. Whether is lands just over, or just under, that mark doesn’t really change the story though: this is an excellent start by any standards.
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March 28th, 2024
As no surprise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire easily topped the box office charts in its opening week, pushing previous number ones, Dune: Part Two, and Kung Fu Panda 4 to the second and third place spots respectively. The latest installment fired up just over $45 million in its opening weekend, catapulting the franchise over the $1 billion mark, where it currently sits with $1.014 billion in earnings. This week looks to be a one and done at the top for Frozen Empire as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire smashes into theaters.
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June 13th, 2019
Dark Phoenix may have struggled domestically, but it is doing a lot better internationally. The film opened with $107.0 million in 53 markets with Japan being the lone major market it didn’t debut in. China was the film’s biggest single market, representing $44.44 million of its total haul, including $31.85 million over the weekend. The film cracked $5 million in South Korea with a total opening of $5.58 million on 868 screens, including $2.82 million over the weekend. It had nearly identical results in the U.K. ($4.78 million in 615 theaters) and Mexico ($4.65 million). Unfortunately, for all of the film’s success on the international stage, the film is only looking to save face, as it cost $200 million to make and there’s nearly no chance it will recoup that in a timely fashion.
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June 11th, 2019
It was a mixed weekend at the box office with neither of the two new releases matching expectations. Not only that, but most of the top five missed estimates as well. This led to a result 5.6% lower than last weekend falling to $164 million. I was really expecting growth this weekend. The Secret Life of Pets 2 led the way with $46.65 million, while Dark Phoenix really struggled with just $32.83 million. Aladdin was arguably the only real bright spot in the top five this weekend. Fortunately, this weekend last year was even worse and 2019 was able to win the year-over-year comparison by a whopping 37%. This allowed 2019 to close the gap between it and 2018 to just $300 million or 5.9% at $4.78 billion to $5.08 billion. That’s still a large gap, but it is far cry from where it once was.
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June 9th, 2019
Neither of the two wide releases matched expectations over the weekend and in both cases, it could be the end of their respective franchises. The Secret Life of Pets 2 is earning first place with $47.11 million, which isn’t a bad result for a family film that cost $80 million to make. However, this estimate is 55% lower than the first film’s opening weekend. Internationally, it is adding $16.0 million over the weekend to its three-week total, which sits at $49.0 million. Additionally, it has yet to open in most international markets, so it should have long legs on this chart. However, it still isn’t living up to the original. Universal has to be looking at this numbers and deciding to move on from the franchise, even though this film will very likely break even sooner rather than later. Even a moderate decline for a hypothetical third film would put profitability in question.
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June 8th, 2019
June might be in trouble, as both of the wide releases stumbled out of the gate missing expectations. The Secret Life of Pets 2 managed first place on Friday, but with just $16.5 million. This is 57% lower than the first film managed during its opening day. Unlike the first film, school was still in session for a lot of the film’s target audience during Friday, so that could help its legs over the weekend. Universal is projecting a $47 million opening weekend, but it might climb to $50 million. Even so, that’s still a serious decline over the first movie. The film did match the original at CinemaScore earning an A minus, so its weaker reviews aren’t going to be much of an issue. Additionally, the movie only cost $80 million to make, so even a $45 million opening won’t prevent the film from breaking even sooner rather than later.
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June 6th, 2019
It could be a real race on the box office chart this weekend. The Secret Life of Pets 2 isn’t generating as much buzz as I was expecting, while there is actually some good news surrounding Dark Phoenix’s box office chances. There’s no good news regarding its reviews, that’s for sure. Also coming out this weekend is Late Night, but it is now coming out in limited release with a wide expansion next week. That’s not a good sign. This does leave one more spot in the top five for a holdover, meaning Aladdin, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Rocketman will all remain in the top five for at least one more weekend. This weekend last year, Ocean’s 8 opened with a decent $41.61 million and both The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Dark Phoenix should top that. 2019 should start the month with an easy win.
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June 4th, 2019
Godzilla: King of the Monsters didn’t live up to expectations, but it did well enough to earn first place on the weekend box office chart. King of the Monsters opened with $47.78 million, while Aladdin was right behind with $42.84 million. This helped the overall box office hold on a lot better than expected, down just 4.3% to $174 million, which is a fantastic hold for a post-holiday weekend. The box office was also a huge improvement from this weekend last year, up 63% in the year-over-year comparison. Year-to-date, 2019 has pulled in $4.54 billion, which is still 7.4% or $380 million behind last year’s pace, but a few more wins like this and that gap won’t seem so bad anymore. That said, as anyone who’s read our monthly preview will know, I’m not expecting too many weekends like this in June.
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May 30th, 2019
Godzilla: King of the Monsters leads a trio of new releases hoping to make an impact at the box office this weekend. It will have no trouble earning first place and even the low-end of predictions are at $50 million. Rocketman has the best reviews of the week and it could continue the positive trend for musical biopics. Finally there’s MA, a psychological horror that could become a midlevel hit, but even if it fails to live up to expectations, it was inexpensive enough to break even. Meanwhile, Aladdin and John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum will remain in the top five, while Avengers: Endgame could be one of six films earning more than $10 million over the weekend. This weekend last year, Adrift was the biggest new release opening with just $11.60 million, while Solo: A Star Wars Story was the number one film with $29.40 million. There should be three films that top Solo and as many as six that top Adrift. 2019 should come away with an easy win.
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November 23rd, 2017
It's Thanksgiving weekend, which means Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of course the first installment of our Holiday Gift Guide. This week we will tackle first run releases, and normally franchise box sets as well, but this year none jump out as essential additions to the Holiday Gift guide. Worse still, 2017 has been awful at the box office with potential blockbuster after potential blockbuster getting savaged by critics and struggling at the box office. Additionally, some of the biggest and some of the best have been on the home market for nearly half a year, meaning nearly everyone who would want them, already own them. That doesn’t mean there are no films worth adding to this list, but the list is a little shorter than usual. On a side note, two of the films on this year’s list are from the MCU and it would have been three, but Thor: Ragnarok is still in theaters. If you know someone who loves the MCU, but has all of the movies, then check out this site, which has some more unique gift ideas. I specifically like the Spider-man Drone.
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March 21st, 2017
Beauty and the Beast was expected to break records during its opening weekend, but its final tally of $174.75 million is still impressive, even compared to the expectations. The rest of the box office wasn’t hurt as badly as one would predict given the explosive hit at the top and that helped the overall box office grow by 59% to $261 million. This is almost double what it was this weekend last year. More importantly, this was enough to put 2017 in the lead in the year-over-year comparison. At the end of the weekend, 2017 had earned $2.39 billion, compared to $2.30 billion for 2016. Granted, this is partially due to a misalignment of monster hits, as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened the following weekend last year. That said, I really don’t think 2017 will fall behind given its current $95 million lead.
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March 18th, 2017
As expected, Beauty and the Beast earned first place on Friday. Its performance was a little better than expected, with Disney’s movie earning $63.79 million. To put this into perspective, this is more than Kong: Skull Island earned during its opening weekend. There are some confusing elements to deal with. Firstly, the reviews improved to 71% positive, which is still lower than anticipated, but good enough to not hurt the film’s legs. Additionally, it earned a solid A from CinemaScore. Strangely, the demographics changed, with women representing 72% of Friday’s audiences. That’s up from just under 60% during Thursday’s previews and a lot of times it goes in the other direction. So what does this mean for the future? The film just needs an internal multiplier above 2.6 to become the biggest March opening of all time. That seems very likely at this point. In fact, anything less than $175 million will be seen as a little disappointing.
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