by Nathaniel R
What did you see over the long holiday weekend? Some of the movies got a two day headstart opening on Wednesday, others on Friday but awards season is most definitely upon us; almost everything has now screened for someone and there's only one month of the year left to get through. We've expanded the two charts to include all 14 films in wide release (over 800 screens) and the corresponding top players in limited release. There's a glut of titles out there at the moment.
Here's how the box office went down for the holidays. There is a lot to ponder after the jump...
| Weekend Box Office (ACTUALS) (Nov 23rd-25th) |
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| W I D E 800+ screens |
PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide |
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| 1 🔺 Ralph Breaks the Internet $56.2 on 4017 screens (cum. $84.7) *NEW* |
1 🔺 Boy Erased $1.5 on 672 screens (cum. $4.5) Podcast |
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| 2 🔺 Creed 2 $35.5 on 3441 screens (cum. $56) *NEW* Michael B Jordan, Podcast |
2 Can You Ever Forgive Me $598k on 426 screens (cum. $6) Review, Podcast ❤️ |
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| 3 The Grinch $30.3 on 3960 screens (cum. $180.4) Posterized |
3 Free Solo $448k on 146 screens (cum. $9.6) |
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| 4 Fantastic Beasts 2 $29.3 on 4163 screens (cum. $116.5) | 4🔺The Favourite $422k on 4 screens *NEW* Review, Podcast ❤️ |
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| 5 Bohemian Rhapsody $14 on 2927 screens (cum. $152.1) Review, Podcast |
5 Beautiful Boy $313k on 254 screens (cum. $6.9) Podcast |
Regarding the top five... This was the best Thanksgiving (three day) weekend of all time according to box office mojo and it's easy to believe given that the top four movies each made around $30 million on up. Want to see factor was obviously high on a lot of the franchise pictures.
After a lot of Oscar contenders have come up short at the box office we finally have an unqualified winner: The Favourite. The triple-leading-actress Best Picture hopeful had the best per screen average of the past two years (!!!), selling out houses on each of its four screens in LA and NYC. It was actually the best per screen average since La La Land's opening in 2016. That musical went on to gross over $400 million globally...not that The Favourite is likely to do that given it's less family-friendly more queer and esoteric qualities. Over the next two weekends the tragicomedy about Queen Anne and her warring favourite ladies will add 19 more major markets, so take heart. It won't take long to get to you!
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| 6 Instant Family $12.3 on 3286 screens (cum. $35.5) |
6 🔺 At Eternity's Gate $221k on 31 screens (cum. $408k) Review |
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| 7 🔺 Robin Hood $9.1 on 2827 screens (cum. $14.2) *NEW* |
7 🔺Maria By Callas $162k on 55 screens (cum. $685k) |
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| 8 Widows $8.2 on 2803 screens (cum. $25.8) Review, Podcast ❤️ |
8 🔺 Shoplifters $89k on 5 screens *NEW* Interview, Podcast, OSCAR SUBMISSION ❤️ |
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| 9 🔺 Green Book $5.5 on 1063 screens (cum. $7.8) Review, Podcast |
9 🔺 A Cool Fish $84k on 18 screens (cum. $226k) |
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| 10 A Star is Born $3 on 1202 screens (cum. $191) Review, Soundtracking, Podcast ❤️ |
10 🔺 Border $76k on 37 screens (cum. $457k) Review, Podcast, OSCAR SUBMISSION ❤️ |
The rest of the top ten did not perform as spectacularly but there's a couple of things worth noting straightaway. Robin Hood is a flop. Widows didn't drop as badly as expected given the lukewarm response on opening weekend. Green Book is, contrary to internet belief, not tanking. It had a better per screen average than all the rest of the top ten (outside of the four juggernauts) which bodes well for a solid if not a spectacular run (unless awards season boosts it)
It's also worth noting that this is the last top ten weekend for A Star is Born. But the weekend comes with great news for it: it's now the tenth biggest grosser of 2018, and what's more it's the most profitable among them since it only costs $38 million (the rest of the current top ten had budgets in the $100+ million range).
It's the only non-CGI, non-action, non-superpower related film to make the year's top ten. Sadly it's journey up-top will end very quickly since The Grinch will boot it out shortly, returning to the normalcy that is annual top tens in which only animated films, sequels, and superpowered stuff are allowed. Still it's exciting to see a live-action movie made for adults in there, however briefly!
OKAY... A FEW MORE TITLES SINCE EVERYONE WAS AT THE MOVIES THIS WEEKEND...
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| 11 The Nutcracker and... $2.7 on 1757 screens (cum. $49.1) Review |
11 Wildlife $66.5k on 73 screens (cum. $837k) Review, Carey Mulligan ❤️ |
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| 12 Overlord $1.1 on 1223 screens (cum. $20.1) |
12 Suspiria $46k on 34 screens (cum. $2.3) |
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| 13 🔺 The Front Runner $632k on 807 screens (cum. 1) Review, Podcast |
13 Burning $45k on 23 screens (cum. $376k) Review, Podcast, OSCAR SUBMISSION ❤️ |
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| 14 Girl in the Spider Web $356k on 983 screens (cum. $14.3) |
14 🔺 The World Before Your Feet $22k on 2 screens (cum. $28k) *NEW* |
| 🔺 = new or expanding theater count / ❤️ = absolute must-sees according to TFE numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo |
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As for the rest, The Front Runner in its first wide weekend grossed less than $1000 per screen, suggesting it will be the biggest wide release flop of Hugh Jackman's otherwise mostly stellar box office career. His previous lowest grosser was the thriller Deception with Ewan McGregor & Michelle Williams which grossed just $4.5 domestic back in 2008.
The next two weeks are kind of "filler weeks" when the studios are mostly letting the big Thanksgiving releases carry on unperturbed by new rivals. So most of the activity will be in the limited release charts as Oscar hopefuls continue to platform and a few new ones arrives (like Mary Queen of Scots, Vox Lux, and Ben is Back). The next big box office weekend isn't until December 14th when Mortal Engines, The Mules, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse arrive in wide release with If Beale Street Could Talk and Capernaum premiere in select markets.
So, what did you see during this big moviegoing weekend? I took five friends to The Favourite and thankfully they all loved it and haven't stopped talking about it for the past three days.