Weekend Box Office: You’re Welcome

Light on new releases, there wasn’t much change in this weekend’s box office Top 10. Aside from two older movies holding over very well, most titles performed almost exactly as expected.

Disney’s record year continues. The animated musical ‘Moana‘ saw a slightly larger second week drop than anticipated (50%), but it still had no problem retaining the top spot on the charts. The additional $28.3 million brings its 12-day domestic total up to $119.8 million. Overseas, it’s still only playing in a handful of large markets, so the $57.5 million international gross will only grow as it rolls out further. With a worldwide total of $177.3 million, the island princess won’t play in the same leagues as ‘Frozen’, but she’s still sailing in the right direction.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them‘ had a great second week over the Thanksgiving holiday, but took a harder-than-usual hit this weekend. Falling 59% in attendance, it conjured $18.5 million, which brings its domestic total up to $183.5 million. Overseas, however, it’s still making magic. Playing in most international markets, ‘Fantastic Beasts’ has earned $424.4 million to date, placing its worldwide total at $607.9 million.

The four-week-old sci-fi film ‘Arrival‘ rounded out the Top 5 last week, but thanks to a low 36% drop-off this week, it climbed back up into the #3 spot. With another $7.3 million, its domestic total is now up to $73 million. Having made $32.1 million overseas, the $47 million film has earned $105.2 million. Now let’s see if it can score some Oscar nominations, something that the sci-fi genre has a difficult time locking in.

Although reviews were mostly negative, ‘Allied‘ had a pretty decent second week. Falling 45% from its holiday opening, the Brad Pitt/Marion Cotillard spy film pulled in $7 million and finished in fourth place. After 12 days, the $85 million WWII drama has grossed $28.9 million domestically. Only playing in a few large international markets, it has made $24.8 million overseas. With a worldwide total of $53.7 million, Paramount is likely praying for continued international turn-out as it expands.

Five-week-old ‘Doctor Strange‘ rounds out the Top 5. After a 53% dip in attendance, it brought in $6.4 million domestically, raising its North America total to $215.3 million. With $419.6 million from overseas, the latest Marvel flick has a worldwide total of $634.9 million so far.

We’ve now made it through the Top 5 and still have no sight of any of the weekend’s new movies. We have to jump to the #9 spot before we find the first of them. Jason Blum’s PG-13 horror entry ‘Incarnate‘ pulled $2.6 million from 1,737 screens, which is only half of what it was estimated to draw. While it was produced on just a $5 million budget, it needed a bigger opening than that to follow suit with Blum’s other low- and micro-budget freaky flicks.

Although ’tis the season, moviegoers didn’t turn out for the faith-based Christmas movie ‘Believe‘. Playing at 639 locations, it only made $602,519. That gives it a per-screen average of $943 and shows that not all faith-based/Christmas movies are created equally.

On the flip side of the coin is Fox Searchlight’s Oscar hopeful ‘Jackie‘. Debuting on just five screens, the bio-pic earned one-third of what ‘Believe’ did. The $275,000 gave it a per-screen average of $55,000. If it can retain its buzz and numbers as it expands over the coming weeks, the film just might be the success that Fox Searchlight expected from its botched ‘Birth of Nation’ acquisition.

Top 10:

1. ‘Moana’ (Buena Vista) – $28,373,000

2. ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ (Warner Bros.) – $18,545,000

3. ‘Arrival’ (Paramount) – $7,300,000

4. ‘Allied’ (Paramount) – $7,050,000

5. ‘Doctor Strange’ (Buena Vista) – $6,486,000

6. ‘Trolls’ (Fox) – $4,600,000

7. ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ (Lionsgate) – $3,400,000

8. ‘Bad Santa 2’ (Broad Green) – $3,288,699

9. ‘Incarnate’ (High Top) – $2,659,000

10. ‘Almost Christmas’ (Universal) – $2,500,350

3 comments

  1. Pedram

    Just watched Fantastic Beasts in 4DX. Highly recommend it if you get the chance. It made an already fun movie even more fun!

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