So, though we haven't made a huge deal of it, Screencrave will be turning out the lights. Maybe for a while, maybe permanently (we should have some Comic-con coverage coming next month). Which means my eight-year tenure (including my time at Chud) of writing about box office is coming to an end. And I have some thoughts about that.

 22 Jump Street was going to do well, but that it jumped ahead of How to Train Your Dragon 2 at the box office is pretty amazing. The latter is likely to play longer and do more business, but the former is director Phil Lord and Chris Miller's second $60 Million dollar opening this year. That's got to be a record.

X-Men: Days of Future Past was a risk, but right now Fox has got to feel pretty good about the whole thing as they've taken the top spot this Memorial day weekend, and will easily clear a hundred million tomorrow. But as this is Fox's second most expensive film ever, it's going to need to play big internationally. The good news: It has.

Godzilla seems to have come at the right time, as audiences hungry for summer entertainment gave it more business in its opening weekend than they did The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in its opening weekend. That's huge, and it's no surprise sequel talk is already happening.

This weekend The Amazing Spider-Man 2 made a whole lot of money. But not as much money as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and way less money than the last two movies to open on the first week of May. What does that mean?

So in a surprise move, The Other Woman played to female audiences, and then some. The film, which came out the weekend before summer movie season kicks off, netted a surprising near-$25 Million opening. It was enough to take the weekend, and could mean a hundred million dollar total.

Bad news Johnny Depp, it appears there are no more movie stars, and though you are top billed in Transcendence, you weren't enough to get people in the theaters, and those that did go complained about your work by saying "and such small portions!"

It's harder and harder to stay on top of the box office with so many hit films coming out every week, so it's impressive that Captain America: The Winter Soldier fended off Rio 2, though it's hold isn't all that spectacular.  The Rio sequel did as much business as it's predecessor, which isn't great news, but it did...

So, the record for highest April opening ever was previously held by  Fast Five. That made a little over $86 Million. Captain America: The Winter Soldier beat that by ten million. Suck on that Fast Five.

Perhaps Paramount didn't screw up their approach with Noah as much as it seems they did. Though it wasn't screened for critics in chunks of the country and they seemed unsure of how to sell the picture or its religious trappings, the film opened to a nearly hundred million dollar worldwide weekend. While Sabotage died. Embarrassingly...

Is the Divergent opening good enough? On paper, yes. The film should get to $150-ish domestic without too much problem, and could even get to $200 Million. But in the new blockbuster model, that may not be enough. Oh, and the new Muppets movie tanked.

Well, that didn't happen. Need for Speed seemed liked it should have been a contender, with fast cars, and hot stars like Aaron Paul. But audiences were warned off by critics, and the advertising (it seems) didn't hook them. Perhaps it's partly because the film had little appeal to Breaking Bad fans, but the film came in third this weekend,...

  Generally studios try to get a  sequel out within a three or four year timespan. Whereas 300: Rise of an Empire came seven years after the first. It did rather well, but it's $45 Million opening makes us wonder if the studio is happy the film outperformed expectations, or disappointed that they couldn't get it on screen sooner.

This weekend showed box office muscle as an off weekend led to three films doing over twenty million at the box office, while the Liam Neeson film Non-Stop dominated the frame, and fended off Son of God for the top spot.  

Though there was little doubt about how this was going to go down, The LEGO Movie trounced everything else that hit theaters, then ate them up and spit them out. Which means that both Pompeii and 3 Days to Kill better hope for better international numbers. 

No one really loved the new RoboCop. In fact, most of the pans and praise covered the same territory. Assembly line films get assembly line reviews. And audiences seemed to be able to tell that was the case. Which may be why The LEGO Movie stayed on top. But it may also be because it's really good and everyone loves it.

There was a moment on Saturday where -- when The LEGO Movie did $17 Million -- people thought the film wouldn't get to $60 Million. Yeah, those people were wrong, and the Chris Miller/Phil Lord directed movie made nearly seventy million, which means if we hear word of a LEGO Movie 2 in the next couple days, it's because the film is likely to make over two...

     Say what you will about the film itself, Ride Along is a huge, huge hit, and Universal was right to start working on a sequel months ago. Perhaps they'll have a follow up ready for next year, regardless, the film is going to get over a hundred million and should do so next weekend. As for the other new films...

  Who though I, Frankenstein was going to be a hit? Anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller? Still, one might think it would at least be a little more competitive. Alas, no.

It's January, which usually means a sleepy box office. But not this year. Lone Survivor ended up cleaning house this weekend and made nearly $40 Million, which is one of the biggest January openings ever.