Weekend Box Office: No big surprises in the post Thanksgiving frame

Moana 2 and Wicked easily topped the weekend box office while low key new releases like Y2K mostly flopped.

Typically, the first weekend of December is notoriously slow, with audiences still recovering from the Thanksgiving holiday. However, in this unusual year of ups and downs at the box office, many more people went to see movies this weekend than usual for this time of year. The box office was driven by strong holdover business for Moana 2 and Wicked, both of which blasted past the $300 million domestic mark this weekend. At the same time, the re-release of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar proved to be a box office juggernaut. 

Moana 2 had a slightly bigger week-to-week decline than I anticipated in my predictions earlier this week. According to Deadline, it fell 63%, possibly as a result of its good (but not great) A-minus CinemaScore rating, which suggests audiences aren’t as wild about it as other breakout hits this year (Inside Out 2 and Wicked both received A ratings). Nevertheless, the $52 million weekend was hefty. Wicked slipped 57% in week three to $34.8 million and a massive $320.5 million weekend. With the holiday box office season coming up, I think this has a shot at $500 million domestic. 

Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II fell 60% to an ok $12.4 million. However, one has to imagine that the $132 million total is a bit soft for a movie that had a $200 million-plus budget (although overseas, it’s been a big hit – outgrossing Wicked). Red One, while initially a disappointment, has stuck it out at the box office, only slipped 45% this week to $7 million and an $85 million-plus total. Its performance is reminiscent of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, where it initially opened weakly but had solid word-of-mouth business in the weeks that followed.

The rest of the chart was dominated by specialty releases, led by the Indian-made sequel, Pushpa 2: The Rule, which made $5.9 million for a $10.5 million total. Perhaps the biggest surprise this week was the 10th-anniversary IMAX screenings of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. It made $4.4 million for a per-screen average in the $26k range (by far the biggest on the chart). That’s an excellent result for a movie that actually ranks as one of Nolan’s lower-grossing movies on the domestic side, proving that time has been kind to this sci-fi classic.

CrunchyRoll’s anime Solo Levelling- Reawakening played well to its audience, grossing $2.4 million, but A24’s Y2K absolutely tanked, earning $2.1 million on over 2000 screens. Other new releases, Werewolves, The Return, and The Order, opened well outside the top 10, with Werewolves and The Return having per-screen averages in the hundreds of dollars, which is a bad result for semi-wide releases. Fathom Event’s For King + Country: A Drummer Boy’s Christmas Live beat them with a $2.05 million weekend. Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has continued to be a solid performer with $1.52 million and a $34 million total. 

The box office doldrums as far as new releases seem bound to continue next weekend, with neither Sony’s long-delayed Kraven: The Hunter nor Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim expected to drum up much business. Luckily, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is on the way, along with one of the best movies of the year, Nosferatu, to dominate the Christmas season.