THE BUTLER KICKS ASS (IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE)

The Butler did it — murdered the competition, that is. The Lee Daniels-directed movie, starring Forest Whitaker, opened with an estimated $25 million, considerably above pundits’ forecasts. While they had predicted a close race with Universal’s Kick-Ass 2, the latter film wasn’t even a contender as it opened in fourth place with about $13.57 million […]

BRAVE LOOKS CERTAIN TO SLAY VAMPIRE-HUNTER LINCOLN

The latest animated spunky princess is virtually certain to assassinate Abraham Lincoln at the box office over the weekend. According to industry pundits, Disney/Pixar’s Brave is likely to earn $60-65 million in its debut, while the 3-D thriller Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is expected to come away with about $15-20 million. A third newcomer, Seeking […]

DON’T PUT THE CARTER BEFORE THE LORAX (Updated)

What could have been more mortifying to Disney executives than for its $250-300 million live-action/CG blockbuster John Carter to be beaten by — gasp! — an animated feature, the second week of one at that. But that is what occurred this weekend, as John Carter opened with an estimated $30.6 million and Universal’s Dr. Seuss’ […]

THREE FILMS DEBUT; ALL EXPECTED TO FLOP

Three new films are opening domestically this weekend, and all of them together may not earn as much as the second week of The Lorax is expected to earn on its own. They are the big-budget sci-fier John Carter, the Eddie Murphy comedy A Thousand Words, and the thriller Silent House, starring Elizabeth Olsen. Even […]

STUDY: STUDIOS INFLATE BOX OFFICE ESTIMATES

A Stanford University study has disclosed that weekend box office estimates released by studios on Sundays are, on average, 6.38 percent higher than the actual ticket sales turn out to be the next day — with some studios overestimating their take by as much as 7.9 percent. While those figures may simply represent an overly […]

DEVIL DIES ON SUNDAY

Several of the weekend’s top films didn’t do quite so well as studios had estimated on Sunday, but they did far better than industry analysts had forecast on Friday — most notably the No. 1 film, The Devil Inside, which wound up with $33.7 million — twice as much as the most optimistic predictions. (It […]

SCHOOL’S OUT; BOX OFFICE BACK IN BUSINESS

After two back-to-back weekends of sluggish business, the box office is expected to bounce back as schools let out for the Christmas/New Year’s holiday period. Three sequels will be making their debuts: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. Predictions from box-office pundits are all […]

TINTIN DOMINATES OVERSEAS BOX OFFICE

Overseas, Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin easily captured the No. 1 spot for the second weekend in a row with $40.8 million in ticket sales. Since opening on Oct. 26, the animated film has earned $125.3 million in 45 countries. The film dominated the market in most countries, particularly the U.K., where it racked […]