Friday Estimates: February 18, 2012

The Vow continues to hold the lead, keeping the return of Ghost Rider in the 2 spot. And Safe House, in #3, holds off This Is War.

In holdovers, The Woman in Black has become CBS Films’ highest domestic grosser. And Star Wars: Episode 1′s 3D re-release has to be seen as a bit of a bust.

Friday Estimates: February 10, 2012

It looks like a trio of $20m+ openings, two of which are looking at $30m+. The newcomers balance between four demographics, though the Star Wars 3D re-release is likely siphoning ticket sales from two of the other new films. This will be the second time in movie history with five $20m+ openings in February with Ghost Rider 2 due next weekend to, perhaps, set a new Feb record with six $20m+ openings.

Friday Estimates: February 4, 2012

Two studios had strong starts with genre product, The Grey has a solid Friday-to-Friday hold, and saving sea creatures is no big miracle on this day.

Friday Estimates, January 27, 2012

Open Road’s first big opening comes with The Grey, which should be in the top 5 of all indie openings for the last year. Meanwhile, Lionsgate returns to HeiglLand, not breaking any records, but continuing to make an argument that Ms. Heigl can consistently open movies to 8 figures. And SummitGate’s Man On A Ledge fell off.

Friday Estimates: January 13, 2012

Three newcomers on top of the chart this weekend… kind of. Contraband, a remake, is on top. The 3D re-release of Beauty & The Beast is #2. And Joyful Noise, which brings back Dolly Parton’s breasts and what’s left of her old face, is #3. The Devil Inside drops almost as hard as Paramount hitting its knees in thanks for last Friday’s number.

Friday Estimates: January 6, 2012

The only new wide release was The Devil Inside, which turned out to be another remarkable opening for another faux-und footage movie by Paramount. The Top 4 Holdovers fell in the 40s. And the expansion of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is looking at around $6k per screen on 809… pretty good.

Friday Estimates: Dec 30, 2011

Cruise’s newest mission continues to lead the pack, probably passing the earlier-released Sherlock Holmes: Let’s Not Call It “2″ today or tomorrow. Steven Spielberg’s two films are running side by side on the chart, as are the Zoo and the Tattoo.

Friday Estimates: December 23, 2011

The last time there was a Christmas on a Sunday was 2005 and yesterday’s numbers are an improvement on the Friday numbers from that year. However, there is a lot of high-profile new product in the market this weekend than there was that year. Comparisons to last year’s Friday before Christmas – Christmas Eve – are futile as well.

Friday Estimates: December 16, 2011

Sherlock & The Chipmunks lead the way, though neither is quite living up to its previous outing so far. And the all-IMAX Mission: Impossible is doing very strong numbers on 425 IMAX screens.

Friday Estimates, December 9, 2011

Twilight 4a has finally been vanquished… by a parade of popular actors who normally can’t open movies. Meanwhile, the weightier incarnation of Jonah Hill makes his move as a box office star.

In limited release, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy comes flying out of the gate fast on 4 screens with Young Adult just a step behind.

Friday Estimates: November 25, 2011

To no one’s surprise, Twilight continues on top of the heap. It’s followed by FOUR family films, with The Muppets dominating over the other 3, which are right on top of each other.

Friday Estimates, November 18, 2011

As anticipated, Part One of the final entry in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, strongly leads the pack, while kiddie entry Happy Feet Two battles for space against Puss in Boots. Meanwhile, The Immortals and Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill arm wrestle for the third and fourth place slots.

Friday Estimates, Novemeber 11, 2011

The Immortals opens solidly while Sandler’s two-sex romp opens in his normal non-summer range. And the J. Edgar releasing choice – opening wide, but only on 1910 screens – produces decent, but unclear results.

Friday Estimates: November 5, 2011

Two new films this weekend. One, a comedy caper flick and the other a prematurely 3Dinating Christmas comedy. Plus, a strong hold for last weekend’s champ, Puss in Boots.

Friday Estimates: October 28, 2011

Puss In Boots delivers a decent off-season number for an animated film, winning the weekend, but not setting off fireworks. Modest launches for In Time and The Rum Diary. Paranormal Activity, taking an outsized hit vs last Friday’s numbers, is holding surprisingly well. And DW’s Real Steel takes a punch badly for the first time, probably at the hands of DWA’s Puss.

Friday Estimates, October 21, 2011

Paranormal Activity 3 has become a regular activity for October fright fans, not only sure to beat its own opening record as a franchise, but looking at taking the crown as best October opener ever from Paramount’s champ from just last year, Jackass 3D. The 3D Musketeers couldn’t get to 3K on opening day. And Johnny English wasn’t reborn for long before dying at the American box office.

Friday Estimates: October 15, 2011

27 years ago, Footloose opened and went on to do almost 10x its opening weekend. This weekend, the Footloose remake will open to about twice what the original did. 29 years ago John Carpenter’s The Thing opened to about the same amount in 3 days as the new remake opened to do on Friday. And Steve Martin’s hair is still white.

Friday Estimates, October 7, 2011

Reel Steel easily beats up Clooney & Gosling, as expected. Dolphin Tale keeps on flipping with the best Friday hold in the Top 10. And in spite of the Blu-ray/DVD going on sale, people are still coming out to see the circle of life in The Lion King 3D. In limited release, IFC has an excrement-eating grin, as the very crappy Human Centipede 2 is making the most out of its notoriety.

Friday Analysis by David Poland can be found here

Friday Estimates, September 30, 2011

Much like last weekend, Moneyball takes Friday, but had the two family movies right on its heels, almost guaranteed to pass the adult drama on Saturday and Sunday.

There are four newcomers to the market, none of which is looking very strong. Top of the group, for now, is Courageous, the born-again title, followed by the abandoned Dream House, the highly touted 50/50, and the broad (in every way) comedy, What’s Your Number? And 3 new arthouse movies did over $5k per screen on Friday.

Friday Estimates: September 23, 2011

Brad Pitt launches on top of the weekend box office with strong reviews for Moneyball, but Klady’s estimates suggest that The Lion King 3D could come from behind for the weekend win. Suffering for the success of the Lion relaunch is WB’s Dolphin Tale, which opened to a respectable estimate of $5.1m. In 4th and 5th, two action movies that are also pulling off the same demographic at their own peril.