Critics have been generally unkind to Vantage Point, the Pete Travis-directed film, with many, describing it as an Akira Kurosawa Rashomon ripoff, but that hasn’t kept moviegoers away. With an all-star cast, including Oscar winners William Hurt and Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox from TV’s Lost, and former Academy Award nominees Dennis Quaid and Sigourney Weaver, [...]

An odd mix of films arrive in theatres for Oscar weekend. The big title is clearly Vantage Point (Sony), opening on 3,000+ screens, but also New Line delivers Michael Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def, at 800 or so locations, Lionsgate dumps an alleged comedy called Witless Protection on about 1,300 [...]

Doug Liman’s Jumper (Fox) received a nice 27% Saturday surge, adding just over $11M for a new 3-day cume of $26.37M. With a projected $8M or so on Sunday and another $4.19M on President’s Day, the tepidly-reviewed Hayden Christensen sci-fi action movie will finish with a 5-day of $38.63M, more than enough to win the [...]

Jumper has leapt to an excellent $8.21M on Friday, and it should bound to a solid $34.47M for the Valentine’s Day through President’s Day 5-day box office frame. After finishing in a virtual dead heat with Disney’s Step Up to the Streets on Thursday, Doug Liman’s sci-fi adventure pic overwhelmed the competition on Friday. Meanwhile, [...]

Step Up 2 the Streets (Disney) appears to have edged Fox’s big budget Jumper on Thursday, although technically, it’s a bit too close ro call the race definitively. The urban dance sequel has averaged an estimated $2,500 per location on its opening day for what looks to be a $6.175M total. The big budget sci [...]

The 3-day estimate for Fool’s Gold (Warner Bros) I released Friday night (see below) was dead-on, but I underestimated the Saturday surge for Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins (Universal). The Matthew McConaughey/Kate Hudson romatic comedy received a 23% Saturday bump for an estimated day 2 take of $9.4M. Gold will finish the weekend with $22.42M, making [...]

5 years ago, Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson teamed up for the romantic comedy How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days with a $7.96M Friday and a $23.7M opening weekend. Their new movie together, Fool’s Gold (Warner Bros), is enjoying virtually the same success. The tepidly-reviewed date flick has opened with an estimated $7.81M [...]

Meet the Spartans (Fox) has pulled off the upset weekend win with a likely $18.58M 3-day, holding off Sly Stallone’s disappointing Rambo (Lionsgate), which should finish the frame with $17.28M. Heading to the Super Bowl in Phoenix tomorrow, so no time for in depth analysis, but the rough numbers are below.
EXCLUSIVE FANTASY MOGULS EARLY SATURDAY [...]

I’m getting ready to jet off to Phoenix for Super Bowl 42, where I will be covering the game for ESPN, so I’m doing a “bare bones” version of my normal weekend estimates.
Meet the Spartans (Fox) has apparently won the day Friday with an estimated $6.5M compared to Rambo’s opening day of $6M, but my [...]

Film industry tracking points to a Cloverfield repeat weekend win. History points to a 50%-55% drop forThe J.J. Abrams-produced monster flick to a likely take in the $21M-$23M range. The battle will be for #2, and I’m calling for an upset.
The Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer spoof movie Meet the Spartans (Fox) has an overall First Choice [...]

First off, with Cloverfield (Paramount) and 27 Dresses (Fox) opening huge, the movie industry is off to a spectacular 2008 start. In the first 21 days of January 2007, the total domestic box office recorded was $508.2M. By the end of business Monday (1/21), the overall business will be at an estimated $600M. That’s 15% [...]

Paramount’s 2008 is off to a spectacular start. The J.J. Abrams-produced Cloverfield has delivered a monster opening day of an estimated $18.25M, and it will easily coast to both the All-Time January 3-Day record and the All-Time 4-Day MLK weekend record. The Friday number is a tough call because there’s no clear answer about where [...]

The star-studded premiere of Cloverfield (Paramount) was last night (Wednesday, January 16) at the studio lot on Melrose. Young Hollywood was out in full force, including everyone from Lindsay Lohan, Patrick Stump and bandmates from Fall Out Boy and, of course, the cast of MTV’s The Hills (with LC, Audrina and Whitney not giving the [...]

Rob Reiner’s The Bucket List (Warner Bros) appears to have narrowly edged Sony’s First Sunday for a second day, although it’s a photo finish for Saturday. I’m estimating $8.12M for the oldster road movie versus $7.87M for the Ice Cube/Tracey Morgan comedy. Both films will likely come in above the 3-day targets I set for [...]

The star power of Oscar winners Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman has lifted The Bucket List (Warner Bros) to a solid $6M Friday in its expansion to 2,911 locations, and the oldster road comedy will give director Rob Reiner the best opening of his career. After opening to $10,000+ per location on 16 screens on [...]