After two weeks with no major new movie releases, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse injected some life into the theatrical marketplace this weekend with a strong opening of $35.4 million, which ranks as the highest opening ever for an animated film in the month of December. Additionally, Clint Eastwood’s latest film The Mule posted a solid debut, The Mortal Engines floundered, and Once Upon a Deadpool – the PG-13 re-release of Deadpool 2 with all-new footage – debuted just outside the Top 10 in 1,566 locations.
Marking the seventh time the Marvel webslinger has topped the box office charts, Into the Spider-Verse was buoyed by stellar reviews (its Rotten Tomatoes score is 97%), its appeal to a wide cross-section of the moviegoing audience, and the character’s enduring popularity. As both the first animated Spider-Man film to be released in theaters and the first to debut outside the summer moviegoing season, it was unclear how the film would stack up to previous live-action installments of the Sony franchise. And while the film’s $35.4 million debut is certainly lower than any of its franchise predecessors (the previous low was 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, which opened to $62 million), with a perfect “A+” Cinemascore, Spider-Verse‘s long-term prospects look bright.
Into the Spider-Verse certainly benefitted from being the first tentpole release to hit theaters since Thanksgiving weekend, but with hype building steadily prior to its release and the trailer regularly finishing among the top three titles in terms of audience interest in our Trailer Impact surveys, the film had all the makings of a late-in-the-year hit regardless. It also didn’t hurt that its main animated competitors in the marketplace – namely Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch and Ralph Breaks the Internet – are past the prime of their respective runs (though both continue to perform strongly). With younger audiences close to taking off school for winter break and word-of-mouth likely to be strong, it’s reasonable to expect that the film will continue performing well through the end of the year and beyond, even with the highly-anticipated Warner Bros./DC superhero film Aquaman primed to surface next weekend.
Debuting in second place with $17.2 million was The Mule, the first directing and starring vehicle for Clint Eastwood since 2008’s Gran Torino (as well as his first starring vehicle since 2012’s Trouble with the Curve, directed by Robert Lorenz). Unlike Torino, which went through four weeks of limited release in mid-December before debuting wide in January, The Mule opened wide right out of the gate in 2,588 theaters. This opening is an improvement on Curve, which debuted to $12.1 million and finished with a disappointing $35.7 million in North America. As a director, The Mule represents Eastwood’s fifth-best wide opening ever (not adjusting for inflation) after American Sniper ($89.2 million), Sully ($35 million), Gran Torino ($29.4 million), and Space Cowboys ($18 million).
While reviews for The Mule have been mixed (the film is barely “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes with 63%), audiences seem to like it much better, with the film pulling in an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences and a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Audience Score metric. Even in his late 80s, Eastwood continues to hold strong appeal for wide audiences who gravitate to his brand of grizzled, tough-as-nails protagonists, and The Mule appears to be no exception. As an added bonus, there are few titles currently in release that cater to the 50-and-over demo, so the film counts as something of a counter-programmer amidst a slew of more youth-oriented releases. Indeed, 54% of the film’s opening weekend audience was over the age of 50.
Third place went to the continuing powerhouse that is Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, which this weekend officially overtook Ralph Breaks the Internet with an estimated gross of $11.6 million. That gives the Universal blockbuster a fantastic $239.3 million after six weeks of release. The animated retelling of the classic book continues strong thanks to its tie-in with the upcoming Christmas holiday, and with still two weeks of December left it seems likely to surpass the lifetime gross of the live-action Grinch starring Jim Carrey ($260 million) by the end of its run, not adjusting for inflation.
Falling three spots to fourth place after topping the box office for the last three weeks in a row is Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet, which took in an estimated $9.6 million in its fourth weekend of release. With $154.4 million in North America, the animated sequel is currently pacing 4% ahead of Wreck-It Ralph at the same point in its run, though it’s losing steam slightly faster than its predecessor. The original film had a final tally of $189.4 million in North America.
Stumbling into fifth place was YA adaptation Mortal Engines, which grossed an estimated $7.5 million in its opening frame. The Universal release, which cost a reported $100 million to produce, had a number of factors working against it, from poor critical notices (its Rotten Tomatoes score is just 27%) to the waning box office performance of the once-hot YA fantasy genre. This despite the studio’s heavy push of producer and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s name in marketing materials and the book’s considerable pre-existing fanbase. It didn’t help that the film went head-to-head with Into the Spider-Verse, which also held considerable appeal with tweens and teens, thereby eating into Engines‘ audience. With this opening, the film will undoubtedly be counted as one of the more disappointing box office performers of the season.
Sixth place went to MGM’s Creed II, which grossed an estimated $5.3 million in its fourth weekend of release. The Rocky-adjacent sequel is now running about 16% ahead of its predecessor at the same point in its run and has now crossed the $100 million mark. With a total of $104.8 million, it should surpass the first Creed‘s lifetime gross by next weekend.
Down in seventh, Bohemian Rhapsody dropped just 33% from last weekend with an estimated $4.1 million, bringing the total for the Fox release to a spectacular $180.4 million after seven weeks of release. That makes the Freddie Mercury biopic the second blockbuster music-based drama of the fall season after A Star Is Born, which is primed to cross the $200 million mark this week.
Eighth place went to Instant Family, which boasted another strong hold this weekend, dipping just 35% to an estimated $3.72 million and a total of $60.2 million after five weeks of release. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald came in ninth with an estimated $3.65 million, bringing its domestic total to $151.6 million after five weeks of release. And in tenth, Universal’s Green Book boasted another solid hold in tenth place with an estimated $2.78 million, a drop of just 29% from last weekend. While its wide debut was seen as somewhat disappointing, the crowd-pleasing film has held up well in subsequent weeks thanks to solid word-of-mouth. Its total now stands at $24.6 million.
Debuting just outside the Top 10 with $2.6 million was Once Upon a Deadpool, the unorthodox re-release of Deadpool 2 that tones down the foul-mouthed superhero to the tune of a PG-13 rating in an effort to draw in younger viewers. Notably, the re-release comes with a charitable bent, as one dollar from each ticket sold goes to supporting the non-profit Fudge Cancer.
After playing for three weeks in limited release, Fox Searchlight’s The Favourite expanded to 439 theaters and brought in an estimated $2.5 million, good for a per-screen average of $5,854. The Golden Globe-nominated drama now has $6.7 million in the bank and will undoubtedly expand further in the coming weeks.
Expanding to 325 screens following a limited debut last weekend, NEON’s Vox Lux brought in an estimated $244K this weekend for a per-screen average of just $751. The total for the Natalie Portman-starrer now stands at $433K.
Limited Release:
The highest per-screen average of the weekend went to Annapurna’s If Beale Street Could Talk, the new film from Moonlight director Barry Jenkins that garnered three Golden Globe nominations last week. Opening to an estimated $219K on just four screens, the critically-acclaimed drama boasted a per-screen average of $54,793. It will expand wider in the coming weeks.
The post Studio Weekend Estimates: ‘Spider-Man’ Swings to $35.4M Debut; ‘The Mule’ Smuggles $17.2M in 2nd; ‘Mortal Engines’ Underperforms w/ $7.5M appeared first on BoxOffice Pro.
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