The Grinch had something to smile about this weekend.
The animated retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss tale rang in the holiday season with a fantastic $66 million, giving it the third-highest animated opening in the month of November. Elsewhere, the decidedly non-family friendly likes of Overlord and The Girl in the Spider’s Web had more modest debuts, while holdover Bohemian Rhapsody continued to draw in crowds in its sophomore frame.
Capitalizing on audiences’ seemingly undying affection for the cranky green misfit, The Grinch became the second blockbuster big-screen outing for the beloved character after 2000’s live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey. That film debuted to an impressive $55 million in its opening frame (or around $80 million adjusted for inflation) and finished its run with over $260 million in North America. Like that movie, the new Grinch seems destined to perform strongly through the remainder of the season as it looks forward to a full six weeks of play before Christmas.
While reviews for The Grinch were decidedly mixed (it currently sits at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes), moviegoers seemed to like it more, at least based on its “A-” Cinemascore and 72% audience rating on Flixster. The Jim Carrey Grinch wasn’t beloved by critics either (52% on Rotten Tomatoes), but that certainly didn’t stop it from becoming a massive hit. Also weighing in this Grinch‘s favor is the relative dearth of animated releases in the marketplace, with the last major one being September’s Smallfoot.
In the scheme of 2018 animated releases, The Grinch now boasts the second-highest opening weekend of the year after Disney’s Incredibles 2, which took in a record-breaking $182.6 million back in June. Additionally, it set an opening weekend record for a Christmas film (not adjusting for inflation), besting the last Grinch‘s $55.4 million debut. Among Illumination animation releases, meanwhile, it fell just a tad short of both Dr. Suess’ The Lorax ($70.2 million debut, $214 million total) and last year’s Despicable Me 3, which opened to $72.4 million on its way to a $264.6 million total.
Falling to second place after debuting to a stellar $51 million last weekend was Fox’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which brought in an estimated $30.8 million in its sophomore frame. That represents a drop of just 40% from last weekend’s total, a modest decline that puts the Freddie Mercury biopic just over the $100 million mark after ten days of release. That’s a marginally higher second-weekend drop than A Star Is Born‘s 33.7%, though that film didn’t suffer the loss of IMAX and PLF screens, which put a bit more of a dent in Rhapsody‘s second-weekend grosses. Nonetheless, it’s a sturdy hold that suggests word-of-mouth has been strong for the musical drama.
Debuting in third place was the WWII horror movie Overlord, which took in $10.1 million in its opening frame. The Paramount release came in slightly lower than Annihilation, another R-rated horror/sci-fi that opened to $11 million back in March and finished its run with $32.7 million. While horror has been remarkably hot as of late, Overlord is an unusual brew, mixing elements of a period war film with a B-movie genre flick. This made it perhaps more difficult to market than a more traditional horror movie like Halloween or The Nun, two massive fall hits that also benefitted from being continuations of pre-existing franchises. That said, this one at least had the advantage of J.J. Abrams’ name above the title (the director produced the film through his Bad Robot Productions) as well as a solid 81% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which may have convinced more discerning audience members to check it out.
Fourth place went to Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which brought in an estimated $9.6 million in its sophomore frame after debuting to a soft $20.3 million last weekend. Dropping 52%, the film was undoubtedly dinged by the The Grinch’s strong opening this weekend. While it’s possible that the Christmas-themed film will hold up better in subsequent weekends with the holidays just around the corner, so far this has been a disappointing performance for a film reportedly budgeted at $120 million. Its total now stands at $35.2 million after ten days.
Down in fifth was The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the latest American adaptation of the Stieg Larsson book series. This one debuted to a soft $8.015 million, which is off significantly from the $12.7 million opening of the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo back in 2011. That said, Tattoo benefitted from the name recognition of director David Fincher and star Daniel Craig, whereas Spider’s Web was directed by Fede Alvarez, who last helmed the hit home-invasion horror film Don’t Breathe. Dragon Tattoo also boasted a very strong 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, which helped power it to an impressive $102.5 million total in North America (albeit on a steep budget of $90 million). Spider’s Web, on the other hand, was less well-received by critics with 44% on the review aggregator. That, combined with a just-okay “B” Cinemascore (vs. an “A” for Tattoo), suggests it likely won’t enjoy the same level of staying power as its predecessor.
More to come…
The post Studio Weekend Estimates: ‘The Grinch’ Debuts to Cheery $66M; ‘Overlord’ Scares Up $10.1M; ‘Girl in the Spider’s Web’ Spins $8M appeared first on BoxOffice Pro.
from BoxOffice Pro
0 comments:
Post a Comment