The box office is what makes a movie a success or a flop. Rather a movie is good or bad, the amount of money it makes at the box office determines rather or not it's a financial hit or a disappointment for the studio. Throughout the years, box office totals have increased through inflation and bigger more anticipated blockbusters (Ex. Avengers, Star Wars, ect). The question many ask is how do studios and reporters analyze box office performance? What is good and bad for a film? What determines if a film is a loss or not? 

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• Opening Weekend:  A movie's opening weekend has become a good indicator towards a film's box office success. However it all depends on the budget, if a film makes $110M opening weekend on a $100M budget then it's in good shape (Providing it has good legs), however it a movie were to open to $20M with such a large budget it would be considered a disappointment. Typically the larger a movie opens (Ex.Infinity War's $257M opening weekend), the higher chance it has of a larger drop off the following weekend to due how high it opened. 

• Second Weekend Drop:  In order for a film to be a success it also needs to have good legs at the box office which brings us to our next point which is how much the film drops in it's second weekend drop. Typically a drop between 30-40% is considered healthy while a drop of 60% indicates weak performances in coming weeks. Typically blockbusters have larger second weekend drops due to being front loaded their first weekends (50%-60%). However regardless if a film has a strong drop off it's second weekend it can still leg out in the long run. What will often help a movie's box office performance is good word of mouth among general audiences. 

• Legs: As mentioned before legs are very important for a movie's success as they refer to how a movie performs on a weekly and daily basis. Positive reviews from critics and most importantly good word of mouth is often a good sign for potential legs to help a film hold well following it's release.

• Domestic Box Office: The amount of money a movie makes in the US & Canada (As well as Puerto Rico, and Guam). Domestic performance is important especially to studios as they take 50% of the film's total box office gross. 

• International/Oversees Box Office: The amount of money a film makes outside the domestic box office with China being the largest international market. 

• Box Office Success: Any film that is profitable and makes over it's budget (Including the marketing costs)

• Box Office Flop: Any film that causes the studio to loose a large sum of money and doesn't break even at the box office. An example of this could be a film earning only $300M worldwide on a $270M budget.

• Underperformance: When a film fails to meet the industry and studio's box office expectations. 

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Good indicators towards predicting a film's success are good word of mouth from audiences, positive buzz on social media helps as well including solid views are YouTube, especially 24 hours after being released. Hype surrounding films helps a movie's potential chances at becoming a success as well. 

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