THE MEG Opens Wide And Takes Huge $44.5m Bite From Weekend Box Office!

Of course it opened huge - Jason Statham is no slouch! Ok, the megalodon has something to do with it too.

THE MEG opened this past weekend to the tune of $44.5 million with the overseas markets yet to come on stream. That's an impressive debut. Rottentomatoes.com critics has the movie at a 49% rotten rating while audiences gave it a 61%. Personally I liked it. I still haven't seen it in 3D yet (*GASP* I know right?!), but I will in the coming week or so. I had to catch the flat version as it was the only screening at the time and I was on a tight schedule. I'm really looking forward to seeing some of those action scenes in 3D because I think they nailed it. Some excellent editing really brings the Meg into your lap - even in 2D.

China played a large part in the making of the movie (very evident from the credits and content) and should open amazingly well in that country. Seriously. AMAZINGLY well. And that's a good thing for Warner Bros. - THE MEG cost $130m to make.

I think Shark Week on the Discovery Channel helped the cause - they even had a show entitled "Megalodon: Fact vs. Fiction" to help feed the frenzy.

You know, we should look into using old dino-DNA to bring back Meg. I mean, what could go wrong?

THE MEG is now playing.

Is MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT The Best Movie Of The Summer? YES!

Wow. I saw MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT last Friday and it was amazing! The action is impeccably done and the movie is peppered with it. With Tom Cruise front and center performing his stunts! FALLOUT has already secured the franchise record for opening weekend box office with $61m ($156m worldwide). It should be well over $200m domestically for the run.

Rotten Tomatoes still has the movie pegged at 97% fresh!

For me, when Ethan Hunt has a love interest involved in the story, everything is amped up a bit more. Definitely applies here. FALLOUT delivers. The stakes are extremely high and I'm caring about the characters.

The 3D conversion was also impeccably done, led by a friend of mine, Corey Turner over at Paramount. The depth was dialed up when it was needed with some very cool tracking shots close to the ground that showed me this movie is nailing it. And the aerial 3D shots? Hold your breath! Plenty of time for the eyes to rest too. Congrats Corey! Next up for Corey is BUMBLEBEE, slated for a December 21 release.

As usual, awesome credits and musical score. Look, if you enjoy spy movies, plots where YOU HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION, characters to care about and technically proficient delivery, go see MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT.

It's the summer's best movie. Seriously.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT is now playing.

JURASSIC WORLD Shatters Global And Domestic Best Openings Of All Time!

JURASSIC WORLD was grossly underestimated for it's opening weekend, probably by many of the critics who decided to write negatively about it. Personally I knew it would do much better than the estimates - even the studio pegged it at $100m domestically. But I was off too - this movie is a phenomenon.

This thing's a monster itself. JW captured the domestic opening weekend record by biting into a $208.8m opening topping the previous record holder THE AVENGERS ($207.1) from 2012. It would have been higher too, but it was competing with NBA and NHL finals taking place.

Internationally, box offices were swallowed whole. An all time record of $315.3 million topping HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT. 2 ($314m). And a stunning $524.1 million - over half a BILLION dollars in one weekend in total worldwide box office. Think about that.

JW also topped THE AVENGERS for the all time record in the revenue per theater with a whopping $47.8k in 4,274 locations. 

Over 50% of the box office take was driven by 3D screenings which is obviously a huge amount of revenue. I'm very impressed with the numbers driven here by 3D - especially in the large premium formats. 

When there is a record breaker like this - all bets are off. Word of mouth can do massive, sustained business with many repeat viewers in the mix. A solid "A" Cinema Score, 52% male / 48% female audience with 39% below the age of 25, an excellent 3D conversion means this thing WILL have legs. Will it reach TITANIC levels? (2.187b) It's conceivable but we do have some big openings coming up. TED 2 is next weekend and TERMINATOR: GENISYS is July 1 - but it is more or less clear sailing for JW until June 26. Obviously lots of money to be made in between.

I'll be seeing the movie again in the coming week and will have my review out shortly for the 3D side of things - but trust me, it looks great! If you haven't seen it yet - get out and see it!!

Source: Variety

THE HOBBIT Pushes On At Box Office - Sees Mountain Of Gold Coming...

First Look At Bilbo In THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG

Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is doing very well at the box office thank you very much. After a solid week earning $113,152,900, Bilbo and company settled down to a cool $10.2 million yesterday solidly smacking the competition, namely the Goblin King, Jack Reacher and This is 40 - not necessarily in that order.

Here's the domestic breakdown:
1. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY  $10.2m
2. JACK REACHER  $5.1m
3. THIS IS 40  $3.7m
4. RISE OF THE GUARDIANS  $1.6m
5. THE GUILT TRIP  $1.5m

So how is THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY doing verses THE LORD OF THE RINGS franchise domestically? Very well again! It was the top of the family for Days 1 and 2 then slipped to second for Day 3. It was bringing up the rear for Days 4 to 7 and was third on day 8. Of course it's not a great comparison due to which days of the week were holidays and which were not, but at least we know THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY is in the same ballpark as LOTR movies so that means that parity or beyond is certainly achieveable for the first outing of dwarves.

Worldwide is amazing too. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY has $123m from domestic coffers but also $138m from international tallies for a total of $261m already. Yes. $1 billion is reasonable and certainly $900m is achievable. JOURNEY also puts the follow up movies in a very good place and as the action picks up so should the business side of it's show business.

I'll have more numbers when they fall into place. Stay tuned!

Stats Source: Box Office Mojo

Update On SPIDER-MAN And ICE AGE 4 Opening Overseas And An Impressive Run For MIB3

It always kind of bothered me that so many websites take the domestic tally at the box office as the primary measurement of success for a movie. Clearly that's wrong and yet so many still only cite domestic take as if it was the only one. Heck Canada is a foreign country and yet is thrown in with the domestic take.

That should soon fade away I hope as the international box office plays a larger and larger role. The studios have finally recognized it and have begun releasing their tentpoles in foreign countries weeks if not months prior to North American venues.

Take ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT which took in am impressive $78m and first place in ALL of its markets. Fox's marketing overseas has been done very well yet again, like with the "Sid Shuffle" being shot all over the world.


Or how about THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN which opened with $50.2 - it is doing better than THE AVENGERS in South Korea (which also opened overseas first). SPIDER-MAN also had the highest ever Hollywood launch in India ($6m) thanks to the appearance of Irrfan Khan, a Bollywood star.

Want more proof? How about MEN IN BLACK 3. It has grossed a HUGE $429.8m overseas and what did it do domestically so far? $169.6m. Clearly the foreign market is MORE important than domestic for some movies. MIB3 is now the highest grossing of its franchise.

We'll continue to watch these tentpoles as they open in more markets, including North America. SPIDER-MAN opens tomorrow here (midnight screenings tonight - free posters!) and ICE AGE 4 on July 13.

Stat source: Box Office Mojo

MADAGASCAR 3 A Little Scared By PROMETHEUS But In The End Wins Box Office

I haven't seen MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE'S MOST WANTED just yet, but I will this week. You can tell audiences were craving some family fodder as they haven't had a new entry in quite some time. In fact, my 6 year old son was invited to go see THE AVENGERS this past weekend because there was nothing else posted on the local theater site 2 weeks in advance. I'm sure they would have chosen MADAGASCAR 3 had they been aware of it. Anyway, we couldn't allow him to go as the movie just isn't appropriate for any child under 10, with a parent or not (in my books).

But I digress. MADAGASCAR 3 opened to the tune of $60,316,738 domestically and $135,816,738 worldwide. Impressive numbers and it just about matches the other two franchise entries that Dreamworks Animation has created for us.

Part of the reason for that excellent box office number is the 3D of course, but further than that MADAGASCAR 3 was the third widest theatrical release of all time! Yes, 4,258 theaters housed the animation and only SHREK FOREVER AFTER (4,359 theaters) and HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (4,325 theaters) had more. That helps. Clearly it is a beloved franchise worldwide.


Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS did remarkably well too this weekend taking in $51,050,101 domestically and $142,550,101 worldwide thus far. This movie I have seen and believe me it is worth the trip to see it on the big screen! Domestically, it is the 10th best opening for an 'R' rated movie of all time. Not bad at all.

Word of mouth should keep PROMETHEUS rolling along as discussions turn to arguments! I know I will be seeing it again this week at some point.

I love seeing 3D movies at the top of the charts time and time again. In fact 4 out of the top 5 movies this weekend were 3D movies. Did you know that THE AVENGERS still raked in over $11m this weekend? Amazing. They'll be passing $1.4b this week.

Stats Source: Box Office Mojo

AVATAR Set To Pass $2.5 Billion Worldwide Tally!! ...And How Fox Could Amp Up More Box Office Right Now

Jim here. It just doesn't want to stop, nor should it! According to my calculations, AVATAR should pass the unheard of pinnacle of $2.5 BILLION dollars worldwide on Friday night. It should pass $700 million domestically on Saturday too! These are simply crazy numbers. Take into consideration if a star or director had first dollar points to the tune of say 10 or 15%. Stunning payday. I am not saying Cameron had anywhere near this type of deal, but still - the potential is there for AVATAR 2 and 3.

But they could earn more. A LOT more...

If Fox was smart, they would start marketing the fact that AVATAR will be bowing out of a lot of screens by March 5th. This will create another groundswell of people who have already seen it, but want to see it again in its full glory on the big screen. It has to be marketed correctly though. I remember Neil Gaiman twittering (well at least his publicist!) about losing CORALINE screens to Disney last spring - getting the word out that if you want to see it in 3D - do it NOW. I thought it was very effective. A limited audience to be sure, but I think studios should jump on this standard marketing ploy when the opportunity presents itself. It is called "creating urgency".

Actually I can see why Fox may NOT want to release the 3D Blu-ray in November: A potential re-release could be in the making. Once the summer swath of 3D movies are out there, I see no reason why they would not sneak AVATAR in once again in the fall. 2D on a small screen does NOT cut it! Could happen folks.

I just took in AVATAR myself for the eleventh time over the weekend. ELEVEN times. And I still am not saturated by it. I took my parents who are in their 60's to an IMAX screening (almost sold out too for a matinee) and they thoroughly enjoyed it. My mother said: "Boy that last guy was REALLY hard to kill! (speaking of Col. Quaritch)" I had to laugh about that - he really was a tough SOB. I plan on bringing my AVATAR screenings to an even dozen sometime this weekend.

Guys - one last thing. I am working on an AVATAR 2 story that will have some more revelations included. Stay tuned! :-)