MEDIOCRE RATINGS — ER, TICKET SALES — FOR ANCHORMAN 2

Anchorman 2 didn’t make quite as big a splash as many box-office pundits had predicted. While many had praised the film’s marketing campaign and predicted that it would power the film’s debut to around $30-35 million, the Will Farrell starrer actually wound up with an estimated $26.7 million, placing second to the second week of […]

SMAUG IS LESS THAN BREATHTAKING IN DEBUT

With an estimated $73.6-million opening, Warner Bros. and MGM executives had nothing to feel desolate about, but The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug earned 13 percent less than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey did over the comparable weekend a year ago. That film set a record for December, and some forecasters had predicted that the […]

FROZEN CATCHES FIRE

Frozen iced it this weekend — coming in at No. 1 with an estimated $31.6 million, ahead of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which had held the lead for the past two weeks, but which wound up with about $27 million in its third go-round. While Lionsgate’s dystopian thriller took an early lead on Friday, […]

BLACK FRIDAY WAS GREEN AT BOX OFFICE

With shopping malls packed on Black Friday, just about every film in the top ten more than doubled the amount it brought in on Thursday, when those malls were virtually barren. Demonstrating once again how dependent the film industry is on the vitality of the general retail trade — movie multiplexes are the anchor tenants […]

HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE CATCHES FIRE, SETS RECORD

We have another record. Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games Catching Fire has become the biggest November opener ever domestically with an estimated $161.13 million in ticket sales, coming in right on target (no pun intended). Most analysts had predicted an opening in the $150-170-million range, although a few had hesitantly advanced the possibility of its earning […]

THOR SEQUEL STAYS STRONG; BEST MAN HOLIDAY SURPRISES

Disney/Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World enjoyed a better-than-expected second weekend with an estimated $38.45 million in ticket sales. But the real surprise was the performance of Universal’s The Best Man Holiday, which brought in about $30.59 million, despite playing in slightly more than half the number of theaters as Thor: The Dark World. On a […]

THOR: THE DARK WORLD HAMMERS OUT $86.1 MILLION IN DEBUT

Those admittedly optimistic predictions by some analysts that Thor: The Dark World would bring in more than $100 million at the box office failed to materialize this weekend. Disney estimated that the movie actually opened with $86.1 million. That was still a considerable improvement over the first Thor’s $65.7 million, and indeed the sequel might […]

ENDER’S GAME ENDS UP AT NO. 1

There were no surprises at the box office this weekend. All three movies that opened wide earned about what analysts had predicted. Lionsgate’s Ender’s Game, which had been favored to take the lead with around $25=30 million, did so with $28 million, according to studio estimates.The comedy Last Vegas from CBS Films and the animated […]

BAD GRANDPA SHOOTS DOWN GRAVITY

After three weeks at the No. 1 spot at the box office, Gravity began its descent this weekend, brought down by Johnny Knoxville’s Bad Grandpa. Knoxville’s Jackass-with-a-storyline production kicked off with an estimated $32 million, while Gravity slipped to the runner-up position with $20.3 million, bringing its gross after four weekends to just under $200 […]

GRAVITY REMAINS NO. 1, BUT SLAVE MAKES MASTERFUL DEBUT

Warner Bros.’ Gravity continued to resist the customary drop in ticket sales after multiple weeks in release. According to studio estimates, it fell just 28 percent in its third week to $31.03 million, putting it well ahead of Sony’s remake of the horror flick Carrie, which box-office pundits had predicted would give it a run […]

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