weekend box office

'Taken' was the surprise hit of 2009, a January dump that inexplicably made nearly $150 million in the United States and transformed Liam Neeson into an instant action star. Three years later, 'Taken 2' has arrived in theaters on a primo release date and with an advertising campaign that probably cost more than the entire first movie. Well, it looks like the hype was worth it. The first film may h

After a few painful weeks, it looks like the box office has finally found its legs again. The combined power of 'Hotel Transylvania' and 'Looper' announced the end of the post-Summer doldrums and the start of the true Fall movie season. Sony, who distributed both films, must be the happiest studio in town right now.

It's expected that box office numbers go up on Sunday afternoon. By that point, the estimates tend to be pretty accurate and if there is a difference come Monday morning, it's negligible. Not so today. Three new releases are nearly deadlocked as I write this and we won't know until sometime tomorrow who will actually be one top. We shall update accordingly. Anyway, here's where we stand right now.

How do you know that the summer movie season is officially done? Check the box office and if it looks like this weekend, it’s over. The months of massive openings and long legs are over. Welcome to the doldrums that are late August and September. Sorry, ‘Premium Rush.’ You never had a chance.

Hey there, ‘Total Recall.’ You know how you were supposed to be pretty big movie? Well, hopefully you’re sitting down because, well…you’re not. You see, there’s this little thing called ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ that isn’t a remake of a much-beloved film and it doesn’t star Colin Farrell and people actually seem to generally kinda’ like it. Yeah, sorry buddy. You didn’t stand a chance.

Since the box office numbers from last week were not formally released until after the weekend passed, we need to play a quick game of catch-up with ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ The third and final of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies opened to $160 million, a number that is staggering, but not record breaking. Did it even stand a chance of breaking the $200 million mark and challenging ‘The Avengers‘

Consider this weekend a study of three animation companies. Temporarily forget about ‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘ and ‘Ted‘ and ‘Moonrise Kingdom.’ What do the box office numbers of ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift,’ ‘Brave‘ and ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted‘ tell us about their respective studios? ‘Ice Age’ won the weekend, but is it actually a winner?

With the exception of poor Katy Perry, everyone was a winner at the box office this week. Seriously. Of the top ten films, nine of them either opened well or held well, making this one of the most consistent weekends of the summer season. Filmmakers and studios: pat yourselves on the backs. You’ve earned this one.

When it comes to winning big at the box office, never bet against Pixar. ‘Brave‘ is not only the acclaimed animation studio’s thirteenth film, it is their thirteenth film to open at number one at the box office. It’s a track record that just about everyone else in Hollywood would kill for.

It’s difficult to imagine two more different films going head-to-head at the box office. However, by appealing to completely different audiences, ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted‘ and ‘Prometheus‘ both managed to emerge from the weekend as big winners, making this the first weekend in months where two new major releases opened strong.

‘Battleship‘ was supposed to be the film that nudged ‘The Avengers‘ out of the number one spot at the box office, but instead you can just go ahead and insert your own “You sank my battleship!” joke here. ‘The Avengers’ didn’t cling to the top spot for the third week in a row, it dominated the top spot for the third week in a row, taking in another $55 million for a grand domestic total of $457 mi

Poor Barnabas Collins never stood a chance. Tim Burton’s ‘Dark Shadows‘ found itself clobbered to death over the weekend courtesy of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, who rode a perfect cocktail of hype and stellar word-of-mouth to an unprecedented second weekend. It’s no longer a question of whether or not ‘The Avengers‘ will be one of the biggest movies of all time, mainly because it already is one of t