DREAMWORKS ANIMATION TEETERS

The studio that brought you Shrek had a day on Wall Street that could be likened to dreck. Stock in DreamWorks Animation tumbled 3.8 percent to $16.75 — a tad above its 52-week low of $16.04 — following downgrades by analysts concerned about the studio’s announcement earlier in the day that it will be unable […]

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS MAY LOSE NEARLY $100 MILLION

DreamWorks Animation will suffer a loss of $96 million on Rise of the Guardians, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett predicted in a note to clients on Wednesday. The film, which cost about $145 million to make, has so far earned just $261 million worldwide, half of which goes to theaters and another sizable chunk […]

LOUSY BOX OFFICE? IT WAS WORSE LAST YEAR

Ticket sales at the box office looked pretty dismal last weekend, but they weren’t nearly so bad as some forecasters had predicted. In fact, they turned out to be 6 percent better than they were a year ago during the comparable weekend, when New Year’s Eve opened with $13 million. The top film this past […]

IN FIFTH WEEK SKYFALL RISES TO NO. 1 (Updated)

In a slow weekend at the box office, Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond thriller, rose to No. 1, pushing The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 to third place, behind the third week of the animated Rise of the Guardians. The numbers for each of the top three were nothing to cheer about. Skyfall […]

LITTLE NEED TO BUY MOVIE TICKETS IN ADVANCE THIS WEEKEND

This weekend could very well see the fewest tickets sold at the box office this year. FilmDistrict decided to launch its romcom Playing for Keeps this weekend in order to avoid having to compete with the upcoming holiday blockbusters, which begin rolling out next weekend with the first installment of The Hobbit trilogy. However, Daily […]

TWILIGHT FINALE TOPS BOX OFFICE IN THIRD WEEK

The competition for the top two spots on the weekend box-office list did not turn out to be quite so close as studio estimates had indicated on Sunday. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 placed first, as predicted, with $17.42 million, but Skyfall, which Sony thought would be a close challenger with $17 […]

BREITBART COLUMNIST CLAIMS HOLLYWOOD IS JOINING WAR ON XMAS

Taking note of the apparent dearth of Christmas-themed movies this year, the conservative website Breitbart.com is blaming Hollywood liberals. In a commentary posted on Sunday, Breitbart columnist Zachary Leeman writes, “Hollywood is full of left wingers who don’t want to offend the non-existent crowd they bow down to by uttering something as hateful as, ‘Merry […]

KILLING THEM SOFTLY IS KILLED AT BOX OFFICE (Updated)

In the 30 years that CinemaScore has been asking audiences to grade the movies they have seen on opening weekends, only five films have ever received F grades. CinemaScore has now added a sixth: the Brad Pitt starrer, Killing Them Softly. Going into the weekend, the question had been whether Pitts’s name on the marquee […]

STUDIOS BENEFIT FROM BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday this year not only provided a bonanza for retailers but, what with cineplexes anchoring most shopping malls, for movie exhibitors and studios as well. Ordinarily, ticket sales on Friday are 25-35 percent lower than on Saturday. But on the Friday of this Thanksgiving Day holiday, they actually were about 5 percent higher. The […]

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION’S STOCK FALLS ON RISE OF THE GUARDIANS‘ SO-SO DEBUT

The disappointing box-office performance of DreamWorks Animation’s Rise of the Guardians was reflected on Wall Street on Monday as the company’s shares dropped about 5 percent. Nevertheless, today’s (Tuesday) New York Times suggested, it could have been worse. Guardians may only have taken in $32.3 million over the five-day holiday, but when DWA’s How to […]

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