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Harrison Ford’s canine adventure “The Call of the Wild” is shaping up to be the latest box office dud for the Disney-owned 20th Century. The film, based on Jack London’s best-selling novel, has made $45 million in the U.S. and $79 million globally after two weeks in theaters. That wouldn’t be a bad result, had “The Call of the Wild” cost a moderate amount to make and market. However, it carries a price tag above $125 million, meaning the film needs to make between $250 million and $275 million to break even, according to sources close to the production and...

Many in Hollywood routinely mock religion and poke fun at worshippers. But an upcoming Christian film, I Still Believe, is challenging that trend by winning over the media – even before its release. The film, directed by Andrew and Jon Erwin and distributed by Lionsgate, is based on the love story of award-winning Christian singer Jeremy Camp and his first wife, Melissa. Its star-studded cast includes KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Shania Twain, and Gary Sinise. Although the movie doesn’t hit theaters until March 13, the YouTube trailer already boasts more than 8.5 million views. It’s also making headlines as the...

Margot Robbie’s “Birds of Prey” is set to open well below forecasts, with about $34 million at 4,236 North American sites, early estimates showed on Friday. Estimates for “Birds of Prey,” a spinoff of 2016’s “Suicide Squad,” had been in the $45 million to $55 million range, with Warner Bros. projecting an opening closer to $45 million. “Birds of Prey,” which carries a reported $80 million price tag, touched down with $4 million on Thursday night. Reviews have been strong, earning the film a 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes — a reversal from “Suicide Squad’s” 27%. The film made $7.8...

The end of 2019 brings some grim news for Hollywood bean counters. The year’s box office tally came in roughly 4 percent lower than 2018. That’s the “sharpest decline in 5 years,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. With Dec. 31 fast approaching, industry leader Comscore projected Sunday that box office revenue in North America will hit $11.45 billion for the full year, a decline of 3.6 percent from 2018’s record bounty of $11.88 billion. Will 2020 offer a Hollywood-style comeback? We won’t know for another 12 months, but the early signs are ominous. Consider 2019 featured not one but two...

The atrocious response from audiences and critics toward the feature adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats has no doubt upset execs at Universal and Working Title this weekend. The movie wound up opening below its $10M-$15M projections to $6.5M, and while you can’t expect much business-wise from adult-skewing movies outside of Star Wars before Christmas Day, the audience PostTrak exits of 2 Stars and a C+ CinemaScore indicate a significantly less than Greatest Showman or Mary Poppins Returns box office future (those two holiday films scored A and A- CinemaScores) for the Tom Hooper directed musical. In an age when...

‘Richard Jewell’ Posts Worst Wide Opening for Clint Eastwood With Just $4.7 Million “Richard Jewell” was a passion project for Clint Eastwood, but this weekend it became the Hollywood legend’s worst wide opening weekend in his directorial career with just $4.7 million. Released by Warner Bros. on 2,502 screens, “Richard Jewell” was projected by trackers to earn a $9-10 million opening this weekend — instead, it is opening to half that amount. To find a wide release that low in Eastwood’s career, you have to go all the way back to 1997, when “Midnight in the Garden of Good and...

In the wake of Terminator: Dark Fate’s failure at the B.O., and Paramount’s recent decision to make Beverly Cops 4 for Netflix, we have the further breakdown of cinema IP in Sony’s Charlie’s Angels reboot, which is tanking with a God-awful $8.2M opening, 3 Stars on Screen Engine-Comscore’s PostTrak, and a B+ Cinemascore. The Elizabeth Banks-directed-written and produced pic is also opening in 27 offshore markets, China being one where it’s also bombing, with a $6M two-day take in second place behind local title Somewhere Winter ($8.8M). All of this is primed to further spur a WTF reaction and anxiety...

Heading into the weekend we were anticipating a top ten that would deliver around $110 million, as it turns out the top ten currently falls just short of a combined $100 million as Lionsgate's Midway delivered a surprise #1 finish, topping WB's Doctor Sleep, which slipped to second and well below expectations. [...] At the top of the weekend box office is Lionsgate's Midway, finishing ahead of expectations with an estimated $17.5 million from 3,242 locations. The film also scored an "A" CinemaScore from opening day audiences and should expect a strong performance over Veteran's Day tomorrow that should push...

No huge shocker here, but Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Bron Studios’ Joker is going to churn a profit on its way to becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. How much profit, you ask? Well, we’ll actually tell you. Our sources say the Joaquin Phoenix pic is poised to make at least $464 million after global theatrical, TV and home entertainment windows, and it could be more if the worldwide box office for the Todd Phillips-directed movie exceeds $900M. That amount of profit isn’t that far from what Avengers: Infinity War racked up last year in black ink: that pic made...

Previews of Warner Bros.' Joker lit up the U.S. box office on Thursday night, earning an impressive $13.3 million. The R-rated supervillain pic, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix, easily sets a new preview record for the month of October, besting last year's Venom ($10 million). It began screening at 4 p.m. local time. Joker has sparked sparked headlines for its dark themes and violence, prompting theaters across the country to ramp up security and warn parents that the film isn't an ordinary superhero pic (the usual DC title card doesn't even appear in the credits). To date,...

The faith-themed Kendrick brothers film “Overcomer” had a strong opening, placing third at the box office its opening weekend and grossing over $8.2 million at over 1,700 theaters. The drama film is directed and produced by Alex and Stephen Kendrick, Baptist pastors and filmmakers who produced such films as the No. 1 box office hit “War Room,” Facing the Giants” and "Fireproof.” “Overcomer” is the brothers' sixth film. “Overcomer” focuses on the life chances of basketball coach John Harrison (played by Alex Kendrick) who loses his team as hundreds of people move out of town following the closing of a...

Democrats go to the movies twice as much as Republicans, a new study finds. The statistic was among many tidbits included in a seven-year survey celebrating the 1,000th movie surveyed by industry leader PostTrak, the exit-polling service founded by Rentrak (now owned by Comscore) and Screen Engine. During that time period, Democrats frequented the movies far more than Republicans, or 12.4 percent versus 5.5 percent. Ditto for Independents (7.2 percent). The same also held true for ticket buyers who identified themselves as liberal and conservative (10.1 percent vs. 5 percent). Nearly 10 percent of moviegoers didn't state their political affiliation....

After “Avatar’s” impressive 10-year reign as box office champion, “Avengers: Endgame” has officially dethroned James Cameron’s sci-fi epic to become the biggest movie of all time. On Saturday, Disney and Marvel’s blockbuster crossed $2.7892 billion at the global box office. Once weekend ticket sales are tallied, the tentpole will exceed the $500,000 needed to surpass “Avatar’s” $2.7897 billion benchmark. “Avengers: Endgame” has amassed $853 million at the domestic box office, making it the second-highest grossing movie in North America behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($936 million). Internationally, it collected a mighty $1.9 billion, boasting especially strong performances in China...

Like more or less everyone I know, I have no desire to see a single entertainment company take over the future, dominating what had been a movie industry of multiple entities, each one fighting for their slice of your attention span. Disney, the movie studio so powerful that it ate another movie studio, looks, to many, like it could be that company. The full impact of its absorption of 20th Century Fox has yet to be felt, but now that the smoke has cleared, the mega-corporation that was formed stands before us like an unprecedented colossus, looming over all other...

EARLY SUNDAY AM UPDATE: Sony is calling the 6-day opening of Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home at $185M which reps a record for a 6-day Independence Day launch and the Culver City studio’s best opening over that number of days. Both records were previously held by Sony’s 2004 Spider-Man 2 which made $180M over the July 4th 6-day stretch. Industry estimates for Far From Home are around $184.5M at 4,634 theaters, still excellent. 10-day global for Far From Home is an amazing $580M. By the way, remember we said Far From Home would get to at least $170M when it...

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Heading into the new year, box office analysts were bullish that 2019 would beat, or at least match, the record-breaking success of last season. Followups to “Avengers,” “Secret Life of Pets” and “Godzilla” combined with reboots of storied franchises such as “Men in Black” and “Shaft” would elevate ticket sales to new heights, theater owners and studio executives predicted. Alas, it was not to be. Sure, everyone showed up to “Avengers: Endgame” to bid goodbye to Iron Man, but many of those other sequels sputtered out. They were derivative, shoddily constructed, and poorly...

Studios are learning this summer that audiences have no time for their tired franchises. This weekend it's Sony that's taking the lumps as "Men in Black: International," the first "MIB" movie in seven years, opened with a franchise-low $28.5 million at the domestic box office. The first "Men in Black" in 1997 previously had the lowest opening with $51 million, but back then that was really good. In fact, if you count inflation, that would be a $100 million opening today. The $28.5 million performance, though number one at the domestic box office for the weekend, is below Sony's $30...

I haven’t been paying much attention to this lately but today I saw something that made me wonder if Avengers: Endgame had finally dethroned Avatar as the top-grossing film of all time. The answer is no. Endgame is very close to catching up with Avatar but it looks like that won’t happen now that theaters are dropping the film in favor of newer releases. There’s just not quite enough gas left in the tank. From CNBC: As “Endgame” exits its sixth week at the box office, its sales momentum has slowed so much that now analysts are questioning if...

The Broadway honors slip by double digits in viewers vs. a year ago; ABC's Sunday game shows also drop significantly vs. their 2018 premieres. The 73rd Tony Awards hit an all-time low in Sunday's ratings, falling below 6 million viewers for the first time. ABC's Sunday game shows also premiered to low numbers.

Rocketman also took a steep 57 percent dive in its second weekend, which brings the overall ten-day take to a pathetic $47.5 million. This Elton John biopic was supposed to be this year’s Bohemian Rhapsody, but Freddie Mercury’s biopic opened higher ($51 million) than Rocketman’s total ten day haul. In fact, after its second weekend, Bohemian Rhapsody had already cleared the $100 million mark. So what went so wrong here? After all, Rocketman received much better reviews than Bohemian Rhapsody (90 percent fresh for Rocketman compared to Bohemian’s barely fresh 61 percent), Elton John was always a bigger star than...