Forbes Business Information and Business News Forbes com

Charleston, June 15, 2015 (Newswire.com) - The first two installments came courtesy of the now-defunct FilmDistrict, so this one arrives from Focus’s newly revived Gramercy branch. The prequel to the first two horror hits, which features supporting player Lin Shaye bumped up to glorified lead this time around, The first film basically put Blumhouse Productions on the map back in 2011 when it legged its Jason Blum and company will continue to crank out $5m originals, I just wonder how often we’ll see them in multiplexes and how well audiences will respond when given the option, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Melissa McCarthy’s Spy will probably win the weekend, but I will admit I was hoping for bigger numbers for the terrific action-comedy. The Paul Feig film got a solid start last night with $10.3 t big studio releases of the summer, and if a mere $30m debut weekend feels like a disappointment, it’s because the film itself deserves better, not because it’s below the range of tracking predictions.

The $65 million action comedy (from Chernin Entertainment) was screened early-and-often by Fox, including a crowd-pleasing premiere at the SXSW festival back in March. It earned nearly ordingly. Let me put this as simply as I can: If you don’t see Spy over the next couple weeks, you don’t get to complain about 85% of the stuff we all complain about in terms of mainstream Hollywood.

The last big new release of the week is Entourage. The $30 million continuation of the HBO television show debuted on Wednesday with a $5.2m debut day, although that included $2m in Tuesday previews. Needless to say, interest was heavily front loaded, as the film earned just t My mother actually wants to see it (she watched the show), so I may take her and my newborn for the “take your baby to the movies” showing this Monday morning as a test run.

Also opening in semi-wide release was the Beach Boys biopic Love & Mercy. The Roadside Attractions release, starring John Cusack, Paul Dano, and Elizabeth Banks, debuted on 483 screens this weekend, which is the third widest debut in the company’s history. It earned musical drama.

And that’s enough for the Friday report on new releases. The holdover report will drop later and tune in tomorrow for weekend estimates and the like.

If you like what you’re reading, follow @ScottMendelson on Twitter, and “like” The Ticket Booth on Facebook. Also, check out my archives for older work HER