Box Office Guru Wrapup: Lorax Scores Best Seuss Debut Ever with $70M+ (58 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Mar. 05 2012, 03:18 PM

Universal had cash registers ringing from coast to coast as its 3D animated smash The Lorax blasted past expectations to score the biggest opening of the year by far. The low-budget party film Project X, 2012's umpteenth overperformer, opened in second place with an impressive haul of its own. The one-two punch sent the North American box office soaring 26% ahead of the same weekend from last year continuing a boom year which has seen long lines at multiplexes.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: SEALs Storm Into #1 Spot with Valor (156 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Feb. 27 2012, 02:46 PM

American audiences were in the mood to support the troops as the Navy SEAL film Act of Valor ruled the Oscar frame with impressive results. Tyler Perry and Jennifer Aniston both saw some of the worst openings of their careers with their new offerings Good Deeds and Wanderlust, respectively, while Amanda Seyfried proved that she can't open a film on her own as her latest picture Gone was dead on arrival. Top Academy Award hopefuls continued to see respectable business outside the top ten from movie fans eager to see the likely winners before Sunday night's big ceremony.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Washington Rules Presidents Day with Safe House (34 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Tuesday, Feb. 21 2012, 09:50 AM

Box Office Guru Wrapup: The Vow Leads Booming Box Office (126 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Feb. 13 2012, 02:03 PM

Audiences poured into North American multiplexes sending grosses sky high as for the first time in box office history, four new releases simultaneously opened north of $20M each over a non-holiday frame. Plus, existing films managed relatively good holds despite the new competition. In fact, overall business even beat out the levels seen recently over the busy Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's weekends.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Super Teens Edge Boy Wizard for #1 Spot (54 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Feb. 06 2012, 01:39 PM

Super Bowl weekend saw a fierce battle between two sensational teams as the new super hero pic Chronicle won a narrow victory over the horror flick The Woman in Black leading a busy frame at the North American box office. Both new releases beat expectations with $20M+ debuts, were low-cost projects, and successfully excited teens and young adults who have been so hard for studios to reach with non-sequels. The former went after the guys while the latter targeted the gals allowing both films to thrive. In fact, all three of the weekend's new releases - including the kid-friendly whale rescue pic Big Miracle - skewed heavily towards the under-25 crowd leading the overall box office to continue to exceed year-ago levels every frame this year.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: The Grey Takes the Top Spot (49 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Jan. 30 2012, 11:45 AM

This weekend, audiences turned out for Liam Neeson's latest thriller The Grey which topped a busy frame that saw three new action entries attack a North American box office that already had plenty of action offerings. Marking the first number one debut for rookie distributor Open Road, the R-rated Alaskan survival pic bowed to an estimated $20M from 3,185 theaters for a solid $6,279 average. Following Taken and Unknown, Neeson has emerged as a more cerebral action hero and has now anchored three number one hits over the past three years which is more than most other Hollywood stars like Robert Downey Jr., Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Matt Damon, or Denzel Washington.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Contraband Steals Box Office Crown (51 comments)

by RT Staff on Sunday, Jan. 15 2012, 05:50 PM

Mark Wahlberg's action-thriller Contraband took control of the box office this weekend, while the latest Disney 3D re-release did relatively well and last weekend's champ crashed and burned in its second go around.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Mission: Impossible Stays On Top (67 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Tuesday, Jan. 03 2012, 12:15 PM

This weekend Tom Cruise rang in 2012 by being the top draw around the world once again as his latest action sequel Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol topped the box office over the long Friday-to-Monday New Year's holiday weekend. The Paramount release saw its four-day gross dip 13% to an estimated $38.3M which lifted the cume to a sturdy $141.2M allowing the new chapter to surpass the $134M final domestic take of the previous film in the series, 2006's Mission: Impossible 3, in a mere 18 days of release. Successfully reviving a franchise that was thought to be dead, the $145M-budgeted Ghost Protocol is now on track to reach the $200M mark while the global gross is on a trajectory to smash the $500M barrier.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Sherlock Holmes Wins the Weekend (101 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Sunday, Dec. 18 2011, 04:21 PM

This weekend, three big Hollywood sequels led the North American box office pumping in some badly needed new content but that didn't stop the overall marketplace from suffering double digit losses over last year and the year before. Studios are hoping that audiences are just busy right now with holiday shopping and end-of-year activities and that their films will be well-positioned to take advantage of the extra free time people will soon have in the days ahead.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: New Year's Eve Rings In the Top Spot (64 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Sunday, Dec. 11 2011, 03:40 PM

This weekend two new subpar comedies and a stale heap of Thanksgiving leftovers made multiplexes the last place audiences wanted to go to as the North American box office slumped to its worst performance of 2011. The all-star holiday pic New Year's Eve and the Jonah Hill-led raunchy laugher The Sitter both met with lackluster debuts topping a weak frame that saw the Top 20 tumble to only $73.2M in ticket sales falling behind the year's previous low of $74M during the September 9-11 frame. But a wide assortment of major tentpoles and sequels are about to attack theaters starting Friday which should bring the marketplace back to life in the final two weeks of the year.

Box Office Guru: Breaking Dawn Threepeats Over Weak Frame (99 comments)

by RT Staff on Monday, Dec. 05 2011, 02:55 PM

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Twilight Tops Turkey Frame, Muppets & Marty Solid (112 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Nov. 28 2011, 01:01 PM

A hot leftover ruled the Thanksgiving holiday frame despite the opening of three new dishes all aimed at kids and families. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 tumbled 70% in its second weekend but still sold enough tickets to lead the competition with an estimated $42M over the Friday-to-Sunday period. Across the five-day Wednesday-to-Sunday session, the Summit blockbuster pulled in $62.3M bringing the ten-day total to a stellar $221.3M. The drop was identical to the decline that New Moon suffered two years ago on the same weekend. The latest Bella-Edward story is running 4% behind the domestic pace of New Moon which is not bad for the fourth film in a series. But thanks to an accelerated global release schedule, Breaking Dawn's current international cume of $268M (including $71.5M this weekend) is 10% ahead of New Moon's at the same point in time. Worldwide, the new saga's $489.3M is 3% ahead of Moon which ended its run with $713M.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Twilight Destroys the Competition (113 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Nov. 21 2011, 01:35 PM

This weekend, the wedding of the year attracted Bella and Edward fans around the world as the highly anticipated vampire sequel The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 crushed the competition across the globe debuting at number one. Not as warmly received in their return were the animated penguins of Happy Feet Two which opened in second place with only half the debut of its predecessor ahead of what will be a very competitive holiday season for kidpics. George Clooney's The Decendants rocked the specialty box office and even made it into the top ten despite playing in very few theaters. Overall, Twilight led the marketplace to a healthy improvement over last year which is quite a statement given that a new Harry Potter film launched at that time.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Immortals Debuts at the Top (131 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Nov. 14 2011, 07:16 AM

This weekend, Greek gods conquered the North American box office as the 3D adventure epic Immortals opened at number one while Adam Sandler's new comedy Jack and Jill and two-time chart-topper Puss in Boots fought over second place with virtually identical grosses. The new FBI biopic J. Edgar opened more like a Clint Eastwood film than a Leonardo DiCaprio one, settling into fifth place in its first weekend. Overall the marketplace saw healthy double digit gains over last year thanks in part to the Veterans Day holiday falling on Friday instead of Thursday this year. Multiplex activity is set to go even higher very soon with the Twilight juggernaut right around the corner.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Puss in Boots Beats New Comedies for #1 Spot (93 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Nov. 07 2011, 08:43 AM

In a surprise upset, the animated comedy Puss in Boots held onto the box office crown thanks to an astonishingly strong hold in the second frame while the competing new comedies Tower Heist and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas debuted in the silver and bronze positions, both performing on the lower end of expectations. The overall marketplace remained slow resulting in the worst gross for the first weekend of November in at least nine years.

Box Office Guru! Puss in Boots at Top with $34M (87 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Sunday, Oct. 30 2011, 06:44 PM

The animated comedy Puss in Boots debuted at number one over the pre-Halloween frame while other new releases failed to generate much excitement averaging under $4,000 a piece. The overall marketplace got hit hard by a double whammy of game seven of the World Series on Friday which attracted over 25 million viewers followed by a powerful winter storm hitting the highly populated northeast region of the country on Saturday affecting tens of millions of people with unusually early snowfalls. Studio estimates may change significantly on Monday depending on how much lost business gets picked up on Sunday. Films with better word-of-mouth may also grab some of that lost cash in the weeks ahead if good buzz can spread.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Paranormal Activity 3 Scares Up A Huge Opening (105 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Oct. 24 2011, 06:36 AM

Scaring up more business than the rest of the films in the top ten combined, the horror prequel Paranormal Activity 3 shattered records with its top spot debut proving that the low-budget fright franchise still has a lot of life in it. But despite the massive debut and low declines for most holdovers, the overall box office was still down compared to last year as other newcomers like the adventure film The Three Musketeers and the comedy sequel Johnny English Reborn failed to contribute much to the North American marketplace.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Real Steel Holds Off Footloose (101 comments)

by Sujit Chawla on Monday, Oct. 17 2011, 08:45 AM

This weekend, the worldwide protests against remakes came out in full force as the robot boxers of Real Steel squeaked out a victory over the 80s remakes of Footloose and The Thing, while the weekend's other new release The Big Year crashed and burned. Overall the box office dropped nearly 37% from last year.

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Real Steel Is the Real Deal (81 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Oct. 10 2011, 10:04 AM

This weekend, Hugh Jackman scored an easy victory over George Clooney in the battle of People magazine's former sexiest men alive as the robot boxing actioner Real Steel punched up a number one debut well ahead of the political thriller The Ides of March which played in one-third fewer theaters. Overall box office during the Columbus Day holiday weekend was decent but not exceptional with holdovers filling up the rest of the top ten.

Box Office: It's Good To Be The Lion King (105 comments)

by Gitesh Pandya on Monday, Sep. 26 2011, 02:29 PM

Multiplexes across North America were busier than normal for this time of year as the hit re-release The Lion King 3D held onto the number one spot for a second frame driving the box office to a new record high for the month of September. Moviegoers also lined up for Seven partners Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as their new releases Moneyball and Dolphin Tale both debuted higher than expected in a close battle for second place. For the first time in history, three different films grossed north of $20M on the same September weekend as the Top 20 soared to a stellar $115M - a new record for the back-to-school month.