Holiday Box Office Fizzles as Tough Comps Take Their Toll

Facing a very tough comparison driven by the $126 million open for Indiana Jones the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a year ago, the weekend box office put in a reasonable performance, up 1.4% for the top 12 films for the 4-day holiday weekend. Analysts will give the weekend a pass but it fell modestly […]

Box Office Up Again But Story is Studios Not Theaters

Last weekend is a good reminder of why box office analysis is not as simple as it seems. The overall weekend in North America was solid, up 5.4% for the top 12 films according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, the year –to-date comparison remains very strong at +15%. The summer season also remains strong, up 16.9% from the […]

Box Office Boom Continues But Look Out Ahead

The box office boom of 2009 continued last weekend with the top 12 films up 30% vs. a year ago. Led by another surprisingly large opening in the #! Spot, the weekend was also helped by decent openings for other newcomers and good holds for hits form earlier this year. Year-to-date the box office is […]

Box Office Stays Red Hot

The box office boom continues. The top 12 films were up 61%. Led by Hannah Montana The Movie, a reasonable hold Fast and Furious, and good hold for Monsters vs. Aliens, The weekend was the best ever for Easter and the second best ever in April, trailing only last weekend. For years April weekends brought […]

Profits Not Box Office Matter to Movie Studios

The box office boom is clearly a plus for theater owners how collect about 45% of ticket revenues and get more high margin concession sales. For studios, the boom is not clear cut. It depends on which studios and are producing the hits and most importantly, the profitability of individual films and the overall annual […]

Box Office Accelerates Furiously

The box office boom kicked into top gear this weekend as Fast and Furious opened to $72.5 million, shattering expectations and the prior record for April. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, the weekend was up an astounding 89.8% for the top 12 films. The top two films pulled in $106 million, up 10.8% from the entire slate […]

Movie Star Salary Control Just One Way Studios Are Coping

On Thursday the Wall Street Journal ran a major story discussing how the Hollywood studios are trying to cut back on the huge payouts to movie stars. David Poland of the Hot Blog and Movie City News did a follow-up which linked to articles by Gabriel Snyder at Gawker and Kim Masters of The Daily […]

Monsters vs. Aliens Scores in 3-D Adding Bull Fuel to Movie Stocks

Monsters vs. Aliens met expectations with an opening weekend gross of $58.2 million. The box office also benefitted from a surprisingly strong opening for The Haunting in Connecticut. With these two films driving the weekend, the two week slump is over as the weekend was up 52.5% for the top 12 films according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. […]

Box Office Cooling Won’t Last Much Longer

The box office continued its cooling trend as the weekend was down 1.5% for the top 12 films according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. This marks the second consecutive down weekend following almost three months of positive comparisons. Year-to-date, the box office is now up 9.9%, well off its peak growth, but still a very good comparison that […]

Sundance 2009

I went to the Sundance Film Festival for the second year whereI saw eight films over two days. If I had a longer stay I would cut down to three films a day. One of the films was a series of shorts. Of the other seven, my son, a junior at NYU studying music composition […]