4th Update Sunday AM writethru, after Friday midday and Saturday AM updates If you’re a rival major studio in the Disney-Fox era and you want to continue to play around with franchises, you have to make a movie that’s so outstanding, there’s no question in any person’s mind that they should go to the cinema. The…

SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU after Saturday 7:24 AM post: Here’s a trend: three franchise films in a row this summer —Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Secret Life of Pets 2, and Dark Phoenix — opened to roughly half of what their previous films did. And we may have a fourth title next weekend, if Men in Black International…

Illumination/Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 might win over U.S./Canada this weekend with a projected $60M, but Disney/Fox’s Dark Phoenix is expected to take over the world with at least a $170M global day-and-date launch. In what is the last Fox/Marvel X-Men movie before Disney’s MCU likely reboots the mutant…

SUNDAY UPDATE, writethru: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters has come in with a $130M opening weekend launch at the international box office. As we noted yesterday, this is far lower than what the industry was seeing ahead of the debut. The continuation of Legendary’s modern monster series is the…

UPDATE, TUESDAY AM writethru with actuals: Disney’s live-action take on the classic 1992 animated Aladdin flew slightly higher at the international box office compared to Sunday’s estimates, with a $122M start. That lands the Will Smith-starrer right at the top end of industry predictions with a better-than-expected…

In the weekend showdown on June 7-9 between Illumination/Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Fox/Disney’s X-Men finale Dark Phoenix, the household critters are poised to beat the mutants in their openings, $63M+ to $50M. Some B.O. analysts think Pets 2 could even do more, maybe as high as $70M. The first 2016…

For the most part, between the STX and Warner Bros sessions so far, it hasn’t been a star-heavy year at CinemaCon. However, any studio looking to send electricity through the Coliseum at Caesars Palace can always rely on Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, who were on hand Wednesday during Universal’s presentation to…

Back in 2016, pet owners got a sneak peek at what their precious animals did while their humans were out with The Secret Life of Pets. And plenty of folks were interested in finding out, as the film opened to a massive $104.4 million en route to a $368.4 million domestic gross. It also made more than a half-billion…

Another Hollywood employer of Louis C.K. is cutting ties after the comedian/actor/voiceover artist was accused of and admitted to inappropriate sexual conduct with five women: Universal Pictures and Illumination have ended their relationship with Louis C.K. as a voice over artist on animated film The Secret Life of Pet…

The sequel to Illumination’s $875M worldwide-grossing animated pic from last summer will continue its tale on June 7, 2019, Universal announced today. On its new date, The Secret Life of Pets 2 will rival Sony’s reboot of Charlie’s Angels and 20th Century Fox’s untitled Marvel release. The pic’s previous release date…

So many successful franchises, so much time. Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment are mixing it up with the sequels of three of their most successful animated IPs. First, The Secret Life of Pets 2 is being pushed by a year from July 13, 2018, to Fourth of July weekend a year later. In addition, Minions 2…

Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures' The Secret Life of Pets has barked, meowed and hopped over the $400M worldwide box office mark. Domestically, the total through Tuesday is $300.3M. Internationally, where there is still a lot of rollout to come, the total is $103.5M. China opened today, and while…