BATTLESHIP MAKES WAVES ON DVD

Universal’s Battleship has finally scored a domestic victory. Sunk by The Avengers when it opened theatrically, the big-budget sci-fi movie topped the VideoScan First Alert sales chart for the week ended Sept. 2, knocking the previous winner, The Hunger Games, into second place. According to Home Media magazine, the Blu-ray version Battleship outsold Hunger Games […]

FOR LIONSGATE, A LOSS NOW, PROFITS LATER

In Hollywood’s latest variant of “it takes money to make money,” Lionsgate, which produced The Hunger Games, one of the biggest hits of the year, reported a loss of $22.7 million in its fourth quarter ended March 31, due in large part to the costs involved in promoting and marketing the film. It also cited […]

AVENGERS‘ FINAL OFFICIAL TALLY: $207.4 MILLION

Disney reported today (Monday) that ticket sales on Sunday for The Avengers was higher than its earlier estimate and that the final weekend tally came to $207.4 million. The Avengers thereby becomes the first movie ever to exceed $200 million over its first Friday-through-Sunday period. Disney further observed that the worldwide total for the Marvel […]

THEATER OWNERS: WHERE DID ALL THE PEOPLE GO?

There was a lot of room to spread out at many theaters over the weekend as the box office plunged by a third from the comparable weekend a year ago. According to box-office tracker Paul Dergarabedian, the top 12 films earned just $97.08 million versus $144.92 million a year ago. Not a single film cracked […]

THINK LIKE A MAN SUPRISES AGAIN, REMAINS NO. 1 (Updated)

Box office forecasters may have learned to underestimate Sony’s Think Like a Man at their peril. For the second weekend in a row, the film eclipsed predictions, coming in at No. 1 with $18 million, according to studio estimates. The pundits turned out to have misfired on several fronts. Coming in second was the animated […]

THINK LIKE A MAN BECOMES PROFITABLE IN FIRST WEEKEND

Sony/Screen Gems’ Think Like a Man took in nearly twice what the studio thought it would and wound up clobbering the competition at the box office. Think amassed $33.6 million. Costing just $12 million to produce, the movie already is in profit territory. The Nicholas Sparks drama The Lucky One came in second with another […]

HUNGER GAMES SLAYS RIVALS AGAIN

The Hunger Games killed off all competitors in its fourth week, retaining the crown as the No. 1 film at the box office with a total weekend take of $21.1 million, according to final figures released on Monday. It was challenged by the debut of the Farrelly Bros.’ The Three Stooges, which raked in a […]

HUNGER GAMES IN 4TH WIN — FIRST TO DO SO SINCE AVATAR (Update)

Lionsgate’s Hunger Games has become the first film since Avatar to win four weekends in a row. (Avatar remained at No. 1 for seven weeks.) With an estimated gross of $21.5 million, it easily held off challenges from three newcomers. Its closest rival was Fox’s The Three Stooges, which nevertheless performed far better than industry […]

DIRECTOR ROSS WALKS AWAY FROM HUNGER GAMES SEQUEL

The Hunger Games director Gary Ross stunned fans of the Lionsgate franchise Tuesday by announcing that he will not direct the second film in the trilogy, Catching Fire, which is scheduled to begin shooting in August. It is set to open on Thanksgiving weekend next year. “I simply don’t have the time I need to […]

LIONSGATE: HUNGRY NO MORE

The Hunger Games has proved to be a bigger feast for Lionsgate than anyone had expected. While many analysts had predicted that the film would turn out to be a solid hit for the so-called minimajor, no one had imaged that after three weekends its total would reach $460 million worldwide, heading for the half-billion […]

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