It was bound to happen given that earth's population and movie ticket prices constantly grow but The Force Awakens will be overtaking Avatar (2009) for #1 hit of all time in the US (NOT adjusted for inflation) sometimes this week. The new-old adventure from that galaxy far far away is just $20 million shy of that particular record now.
Beyond Star Wars there's quite a lot going on though -- including solid ticket selling moves by various Oscar players -- which we'll discuss after the jump...
Brad Pitt is gonna stop you right there. Have you seen The Big Short yet?
BOX OFFICE WIDE
New Year's Weekend
01 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $88.3 (cum. $740.2) Review
02 Daddy's Home $29 (cum. $93.6)
03 The Hateful Eight $16.2 (cum. $29.5) Hated It
04 Sisters $12.5 (cum $61.7) Review
05 Alvin and the ChipmOh God Make It Stop $11.8 (cum. $67.3)
06 Joy $10.4 (cum. $38.7) Reviewish
07 The Big Short $9 (cum. $32.9) Review & SAG Ensemble
08 Concussion $8 (cum. $25.3) Review
09 Point Break $6.8 (cum. $22.4)
10 Hunger Games is Finally Over $4.6 (cum. $274.2)
11 The Good Dinosaur $4 (cum. $114.7) Review
12 Creed $3.9 (cum. $103.4) Review
13 The Danish Girl $1.5 (cum. $6) Interview
14 Brooklyn $1.3 (cum $20.8) Review
15 Carol $1.2 (cum. $5) Production Design, If You Haven't Seen It, FYC Sarah Paulson
Daddy's Home, Sisters, and even those damb CGI chipmunks proved very smart counterprogramming bids with Christmas time releases as 'dumb comedies to pass the time if you don't care about the 'Best of Year' conversation' which -- let's be honest outside our little bubble -- is basically most of the population and why we can't have nice things. Creed, somehow got stuck outside the Oscar conversation (pity that) but it just crossed the $100 million mark so there's a nice triumph for Director Ryan Coogler and Star Michael B Jordan as their profiles continue to rise. Next up for Coogler is Marvel's Black Panther and next up for Jordan is presumably whatever he decides he wants...
Tim Roth in what surely was mean to be the Christoph Waltz roleMeanwhile in Oscar land...
Quentin Tarantino had about the best wide opening you could imagine was possible from a disgusting talky 3 hour western in which nothing happens for about 2 and a half hour except for constant physical abuse of the one female character (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and constant verbal abuse of the one black character (Samuel L Jackson) -- have I mentioned that I loathed nearly every second of this movie? The intermission was all right.
The Big Short is doing great business at exactly the right time to win Oscar's attention and Yes, I'll fess up: I did not see this one's Oscar futures coming. After seeing it at AFI I was so sure it wasn't going to make a dent being strictly as a commercial play
Carol had it's first million dollar weekend (though it's still on less than 200 screens - argh)
The Revenant is still doing insane business on only 4 screens so expect an enormous box office tally next weekend when The Suffering of Leonardo goes wide. One presumes they just decided to avoid the opening weekend of the other auteur driven gorey western that's very long but super light on plot.
In the deeper recesses of the chart a moment of silence for France's Oscar entry Mustang which has just not caught on for some reason. It's still under $200,000 without a strong per screen average which is a real shame because it's so damn good, and accessibly entertaining too. It's chief competitor for Best Foreign Film Son of Saul is performing more strongly so we'll see if it can continue to gather steam in the weeks to come but I prefer Mustang.
WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?