As expected, hordes of moviegoers opted again to see Marvel’s latest superhero flick, driving the third ‘Thor’ movie to greater heights in its first ten days than either of its predecessors saw over their entire theatrical runs. While the year’s box office is down considerably, each of the week’s new releases had excellent debuts. With quite a few big movies nearing on the horizon, perhaps 2017 will end with a bang.
Over its second week, ‘Thor: Ragnarok‘ dropped 54% in attendance – which is pretty low by superhero standards – and retained the top spot on the charts. The $56.6 million draw brings its domestic ten-day total to $211.5 million. The comedic comic book movie is also still creating thunder overseas. It has grossed $438.5 million internationally, giving the $180 million film a worldwide total of $650 million.
2015’s ‘Daddy’s Home’ opened over the Christmas holiday to $38.7 million and went on to gross more than $150 million in North America and $92 million overseas. ‘Daddy’s Home 2‘ debuted in second place with $30 million domestically. While that number is down $8 million from the original, the sequel has the potential to draw audiences over two holidays. And if it plays as well overseas as the first movie did, it has a lot working in its favor. The budget of the first movie was never confirmed, but the sequel comes with a whopping $69 million price tag. How a stupid-humor comedy can cost that much is beyond me, and why a studio would agree to funnel that much into such a production is baffling.
Despite lackluster reviews and a not-too-easy to identify target audience, ‘Murder on the Orient Express‘ traveled a great distance. Finishing in third place, the PG-13 whodunnit found $28.2 million. With the international box office already up to $57.2 million, the $55 million production has made $85.4 million so far and is expected to fare well as we head into the holiday season.
Also doing well thanks to the upcoming holidays, ‘A Bad Moms Christmas‘ finished at #4. Last week’s so-so opening made it hard to predict how the movie’s performance would hold up, but the sequel only fell 31%, showing that it just might have legs as long as the first ‘Bad Moms’. Taking $11.5 million this weekend, the sequel’s domestic ten-day total sits at $39.8 million. Overseas, it has collected $6.6 million from seven markets, giving the $28 million picture a $46.5 million worldwide total.
The eighth ‘Saw’ movie rounded out the Top 5. ‘Jigsaw‘ scored another $3.4 million, bringing its three-week domestic run to $34.2 million. Already a financial success from U.S. returns alone, the film’s $44.7 million international box office makes it quite a profitable little horror movie. To date, it has $79 million worldwide
In limited release, ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri‘ pulled $320,000 from four locations. With a per-screen average of $80,000, it’s likely that we’ll see the black comedy expand soon.
Top 10:
1. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (Buena Vista) – $56,600,000
2. ‘Daddy’s Home 2’ (Paramount) – $30,000,000
3. ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (Fox) – $28,200,000
4. ‘A Bad Moms Christmas’ (STX) – $11,510,000
5. ‘Jigsaw’ (Lionsgate) – $3,420,000
6. ‘Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween’ (Lionsgate) – $2,070,000
7. ‘Geostorm’ (Warner Bros.) – $1,545,000
8. ‘Blade Runner 2049’ (Warner Bros.) – $1,410,000
9. ‘Happy Death Day’ (Universal) – $1,312,000
10. ‘Lady Bird’ (A24) – $1,249,358
NJScorpio
How much will ‘Black Panther’ need to bring in during it’s first few weeks to be considered a successful Marvel film? Coming on the heels of this and ‘Justice League’, could it suffer from people looking for something other than comic book action upon it’s release?
Josh Zyber
That depends on how much Marvel has invested in the movie, which I don’t believe has been disclosed yet.
NJScorpio
To put it another way…a successful movie and a successful Marvel film may be two different things. In order to hit the box office numbers (aside from money invested) to be considered a successful part of the MCU, how much would it need to bring in?
Josh Zyber
It’s hard to say. As insensitive as this may be to acknowledge, the studio’s expectations for a perceived “black film” may be lower than a regular entry in the franchise. I imagine that Black Panther probably cost significantly less to produce than Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or Thor: Ragnarok, out of fear that it probably won’t play as well in some markets where the lack of a white lead (or at the very least, a guaranteed bankable black superstar such as a Denzel Washington or Will Smith) could affect its box office. To that end, the movie doesn’t necessarily need to gross $1 billion to be considered a success.
cardpetree
It’s obviously being marketed as a “black film” but as a white guy that loves Marvel movies, I’m just as excited to see Black Panther as I am any other Marvel film. I’ll be seeing it on opening day.
Julian
Also, ‘Black Panther’ should/could benefit from the ‘Creed’ factor. That movie was excellent, played to diverse crowds, and increased demand for more Coogler/Jordan goodness.
T.J. Kats
As Josh stated obviously budget matters but look at what Ant-Man did and it is getting a sequel.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=avengers.htm
Julian
‘… but the sequel comes with a whopping $69 million price tag. How a stupid-humor comedy can cost that much is beyond me, and why a studio would agree to funnel that much into such a production is baffling.’
versus
‘Murder on the Orient Express (…) the $55 million production’
Indeed, Luke. How the hell can an all-star cast whodunit cost less than a comedy with a few big names?