Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this occasional column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business.

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-838243" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1x1.tr…

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image…

11th UPDATE, Monday, 3:36 PM: Jurassic World took the world’s stage for a global bow of $524.4M and 40% of that came from North American audiences. The Colin Treverrow-helmed family film accounted for 70% of the weekend’s gross among titles from the majors and lifted the box office up overall year-to-date from where…

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image…

Monday, FINAL UPDATE, 2:38 PM: All pictures (but Disney’s) were down from their Sunday studio estimates this weekend but the real news is this is the third soft box office weekend in a row. The box office is off 18.9% from 2014 when The Fault in Our Stars opened to $48M and Maleficent had $34.2M in its coffers. The…

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image…

Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this weekly column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business.

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-838243" src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1x1.trans.…

The third time continues to be the “charm” for director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy. First time out the pair scored with the massive hit, Bridesmaids which won a rare Oscar nod for McCarthy’s broad comic turn. Then came another smash, The Heat with Sandra Bullock joining McCarthy and now perhaps the best yet…

The well-reviewed Melissa McCarthy comedy Spy is playing well in matinees for Fox after a half-day of previews yesterday and looks to trump the second weekend of the disaster pic San Andreas. <img class="alignleft wp-image-1201415310"…

Focus Features/Gramercy’s Insidious: Chapter 3 frightened $1.55M out of moviegoers’ wallets into theaters’ cash drawers last night while 20th Century Fox’s Spy rang up $1.5M in Thursday night previews.

Previews began at 7 PM for Insidious: Chapter 3 in 2,150 theaters, while Spy kicked off at 5 PM.

While the horror film…

This coming weekend is so busy at the box office that it’s literally starting tonight. Warner Bros’ Entourage, the big-screen version of the glitzy Hollywood HBO series, will be the first of three wide releases to open with 7 PM previews. Friday brings 20th Century Fox/The Chernin Group’s R-rated Melissa McCarthy…