What did you see this weekend?
The bulk of the moviegoing nation went to either Doctor Strange (reviewed) or Trolls as expected. Doctor Strange's nearly 85 million is a major success for Marvel Studios, though weaker than the Guardians of the Galaxy launch it was quite a lot stronger than the Ant-Man launch. It's already earned over $325 million globally. When is Marvel going to have their first flop? It seems a long way off, doesn't it?
The top 10 wide and limited charts and notes on other pictures after the jump...
TOP TEN WIDE
800 screens +
01 Doctor Strange $84.9 NEW Review
02 Trolls $45.6 NEW
03 Hacksaw Ridge $14.7 NEW Review
04 Boo! A Madea Halloween $7.8 (cum. $64.9)
05 Inferno $6.2 (cum. $26)
06 The Accountant $5.9 (cum. $70.8)
07 Jack Reacher 2 $5.5 (cum. $49.2)
08 Ouija: Origin of Evil $3.9 (cum. $31.3)
09 Girl on the Train $2.7 (cum. $70.7) Review
10 Miss Peregrine's Home... $2.1 (cum. $83.3) Review
TOP DOZEN LIMITED
under 800 screens excluding previously wide releases
01 Moonlight $1.3 (cum. $3) 83 screens Review
02 Ae Dil Hai Mushkil $800K (cum. $3.6) 296 screens
03 A Man Called Ove $369K (cum. $1.8) 166 screens
04 Denial $288K (cum. $3.5) 218 screens Review
05 The Handmaiden $280K (cum. $908K) 99 screens
06 Loving $169K NEW 4 screens Review
07 Certain Women $169K (cum. $724K) 135 screens Review
08 Gimme Danger $119K (cum. $174K) 61 screens
09 I'm Not Ashamed $110K (cum. $1.9) 131 screens
10 American Pastoral $82K (cum. $418K) 70 screens
11 Mr Donkey $76K (cum. $211K) 24 screens
12 The Eagle Huntress $53K NEW 4 screens Review
A Few Thoughts:
Trolls proves for the bajillionth time in recent years that America's favorite genre by far is the CG animated family comedy. Almost anything that looks traditionally colorful and noisy and American in this genre does well.
Re: Potentially Major Oscar Players -- Moonlight nearly cracked the top ten releases with less than 100 screens. It's shaping up to be a major word of mouth arthouse hit. Loving, which looks to be employing the same start very small and expand each week strategy, started off quite but at least in its first weekend it's not the sensation that Moonlight was right out of the gate.
Re: Potentially Minor Oscar Players -- Sweden's Oscar submission A Man Called Ove, based on the bestseller of the same name about a crotchety old man and his neighbors, continues to do quite well in limited release - will it also strike a chord with Oscar voters? Meanwhile the documentary The Eagle Huntress (Reviewed) opened on just 4 screens and didn't quite hit the top ten for limited releases. Sony Pictures Classics has been working hard to promote it -- it's on the long list of eligible documentary Oscar players -- so we'll see if word of mouth rewards their efforts in the next couple of weeks.
The Handmaiden's second week experienced a small dip despite a growth in theaters. We're assuming this means its rather gonzo qualities caused a lot of divisive responses in moviegoers rather than easy "I loved it" recommendations.
Certain Women has been doing fairly well but it's starting to run out of steam... which means it won't top Meek's Cutoff or Wendy & Lucy to become Reichardt's biggest hit. Her movies have a pretty steady 'just under a million' domestic gross pattern of late. She has developed a devoted fanbase but how to get more of them?
Finally, Miss Peregrine's gross must be frustrating for Fox. It's not quite a hit or a flop. It's done solid business and stuck around for two months but with a budget of $110 million and a global gross of $253 million it's probably a hard call as to whether or not to invest in making it a franchise. In ye olden times it would be an easy call, a firm "no," given the lack of obvious profit margin. But in today's intensely sequel-friendly climate you can still potentially sequelize anything and people will turn out for it. The question is just how to budget it and whether or not its worth your while to invest or try a different franchise instead that's more successful right off the bat.