The Top 10 Movies of 2021 at the Global Box Office

The global box office recovery in 2021 was once again led by China. Local Chinese blockbusters represent three of the year’s top six highest-grossing films, reflecting its status as the world’s top cinema market. As the year came to a close, China stood as the highest-grossing territory for half of the top ten films at the global box office. 

While China can mean the difference between a domestic disappointment and a global hit for Hollywood films, studios have learned not to stake their fortunes on China alone. Several of the year’s top Hollywood titles, including Spider-Man: No Way Home, the first billion-dollar hit since 2019, cracked the global top ten without counting on a Chinese release. 

As China’s role in the global film industry continues to grow, so does the threat of piracy. In a year marked by experimentation on release models and shortened theatrical windows, only one film released day-and-date in North America—Warner Bros.’ Godzilla vs. Kong—cracked the top ten highest-grossing films of the year at the global box office. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Worldwide Total: $1.161B

Top Markets:

1. North America | $557.1M
2. United Kingdom | $76.6M
3. Mexico | $57.9M
4. South Korea | $43.2M
5. France | $42.1M

Scoring the third-highest global opening weekend of all-time is quite the milestone for a film released during the pandemic. To do so in the midst of increased operating restrictions and closures due to the Omicron variant, without the help of a major market like China, speaks to the outsized anticipation for this title. Spider-Man: No Way Home began its global theatrical run in mid-December with a $260 million opening weekend in North America. It became a global phenomenon in nearly every market it was released, bringing pre-pandemic box office figures to several markets for the first time since reopening during the Covid-19 crisis. Spider-Man: No Way Home became the first billion dollar global tentpole of the pandemic era within two weeks of its exclusive theatrical run. 

The Battle at Lake Changjin

Worldwide Total: $902.5M

Top Market: China | $899.4M

The unique circumstances of a worldwide pandemic led 2021 to have a more global top ten than any year besides 2020, when Chinese release The Eight Hundred topped the global charts with a $461.2 million cume. A Hollywood release was back on top this year, with Spider-Man: No Way Home swooping in at the buzzer—but the Chinese market is still well represented, with three titles from the Middle Kingdom cracking the top ten. The historical epic The Battle at Lake Changjin, released in China in October as part of their National Day Golden Week holiday, remained at the top of that country’s box office for a month, until the release of No Time to Die. Several weeks later, it surpassed Wolf Warrior 2 to become China’s highest-grossing film ever. The film performed particularly well in PLF and was instrumental in giving Imax a $30M weekend, its highest ever in the month of October.

Hi, Mom

Worldwide Total: $822M

Top Market: China | $821M

In 2020, cinemas in China were ordered to close on the eve of their Lunar New Year holiday, one of the country’s most important periods for moviegoing. This year, Chinese moviegoers could celebrate the Lunar New Year at the movies—and did so in droves, with the country’s box office hitting the $155M mark for five straight days for the first time ever. Family comedy/drama Hi, Mom—about a woman who travels back in time to befriend her own mother—wasn’t the top grosser of the Lunar New Year, lagging well behind action comedy sequel Detective Chinatown 3. Over the following weeks, positive word-of-mouth helped Hi, Mom film surpass Detective Chinatown 3 to become the second highest-grossing Chinese release of the year. It currently stands as the highest-grossing solely female-directed film of all time.

No Time to Die

Worldwide Total: $774M

Top Markets: 

1. North America | $160.7M
2. United Kingdom | $127.6M
3. Germany | $73.1M
4. China | $64.6M
5. France | $31.9M

No other film in 2021 had as much riding on it as No Time to Die. A new distribution team was put in place to bring the latest instalment of the James Bond franchise to cinemas around the world, with MGM/United Artists handling the film’s domestic release and Universal taking over the bulk of overseas markets. The film’s original April 2020 global launch was pushed back several times before landing on Q3 2021, kicking off with a record-setting debut in the United Kingdom. No Time to Die broke countless box office records in its UK run and helped lead a box office recovery for Hollywood titles in Germany. The film’s earnings in North America were a bit more modest, overshadowed by the blockbuster release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage a week prior. Despite the domestic setback, No Time to Die finished 2021 as the second-highest grossing Hollywood title worldwide.

F9: The Fast Saga

Worldwide Total: $726.2M

Top Markets: 

1. China | $216.9M
2. North America | $173M
3. Japan | $33.2M
4. Mexico | $26.2M
5. United Kingdom | $22.7M

The ideal film to gauge the global box office recovery halfway through 2021, F9 began its overseas run in the early summer as vaccine access improved in many countries around the world. The film over-performed in the Asia Pacific region with a $200 million-plus haul from China and strong showings in Japan ($33.2M), South Korea ($19.2M), and Australia ($15.8M). The latest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise did not reach the billion dollar benchmark set by the previous two entries in the series, finishing its global run slightly below 2019 spin-off Hobbs and Shaw ($759M). A summertime hit for theaters around the world, F9 set the stage for pre-pandemic attendance levels in several key markets in the third quarter of 2021.

Read our interview with F9’s Justin Lin here. 

Detective Chinatown 3

Worldwide Total: $686.2M

Top Market: China | $685M

Hi, Mom’s fellow Lunar New Year release Detective Chinatown 3 came out the gate strong, setting records for the largest single-marketing opening day ($163 million) and opening weekend ($397 million); it also claimed the biggest single-day admissions total for Imax, with over 975k admissions on opening day. It is by far the biggest earner of the Detective Chinatown franchise, the first two films of which grossed $125.8M and $544.1M, respectively.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Worldwide Total: $501M

Top Markets:

1. North America | $212.5M
2. Russia | $32.4M
3. United Kingdom | $24.7M
4. Mexico | $24.6M
5. South Korea | $17.9M

Sony kicked off its stellar Q4 slate with the release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, a title that exceeded expectations at the box office. Following a period that saw one to two major releases per month at cinemas around the world, Venom: Let There Be Carnage faced strong competition from Warner Bros.’ Dune and MGM/UA/Universal’s No Time to Die when it hit theaters in the Fall of 2021. It overperformed domestically, being one of only three films to cross the $200 million mark in North America. The sequel found great traction in Russia, becoming the only Hollywood title of 2021 to cross $30 million. The film’s global haul would have been considerably higher had it received a Chinese release. China was the top-grossing market for the original Venom, earning $268 million in 2018. Sony has yet to announce an approved release date for Venom: Let There Be Carnage in China, but can still boast having a $500 million global hit on their hands without the help of the original’s biggest market. 

Godzilla vs. Kong

Worldwide Total: $467.8M

Top Markets:

1. China | $188.7M
2. North America | $100.5M
3. Australia | $21.4M
4. Mexico | $20M
5. Japan | $16.3M

As the first big Hollywood actioner of 2021, it was all but pre-ordained that Godzilla vs. Kong would smash pandemic records when it was released in North America on March 31. And smash them it did, setting benchmarks for the highest opening-day gross ($9.6M) and highest opening weekend gross ($32.2M three-day/$48.5M five day) of the Covid era. The film performed particularly well in Imax, with viewers seeking out the spectacle that they could not get from watching the film on HBO Max. Though Godzilla vs. Kong got a day-and-date release in North America, in international markets it maintained theatrical exclusivity, contributing to a $121.8M overseas debut. By the end of its run, Godzilla vs. Kong had earned 78.5 percent of its grosses from overseas markets, with China ($188.7) by far its highest earner.

Read our interview with Godzilla vs. Kong’s Adam Wingard here. 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Worldwide Total: $432.2M

Top Markets: 

1. North America | $224.5M
2. United Kingdom | $29.3M
3. South Korea | $15.2M
4. France | $12.9M
5. Australia | $12.6M

Few would have tapped Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to come out above Disney’s two other Marvel releases in 2021. The film’s domestic appeal drove 52% of the title’s global box office, making it the only movie among the world’s ten highest-grossing films of 2021 to earn more than half its box office in North America. Positive word of mouth saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings edge ahead of Eternals in several key overseas markets during its theatrical run.

Eternals

Worldwide Total: $401.2M

Top Markets: 

1. North America | $164.5M
2. South Korea | $27M
3. United Kingdom | $19.9M
4. France | $16.1M
5. Mexico | $15.2M

Closing out the top ten—and landing just ahead of Warner Bros.’ Dune, which closed out the year with $394.5M—is Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, the sixth highest domestic grosser of the year and the fourth Disney title of 2021 to cross the $300M mark globally. Eternals earned nearly 60 percent of its gross in international markets, with South Korea ($27M), the United Kingdom ($19.9M), France ($16.1M), Mexico ($15.2M), and Brazil ($12.8) its highest-earning territories outside of North America. The film, like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, did not receive a theatrical release in China. 

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The Top 10 Movies of 2021 at the Domestic Box Office

2021 was a tumultuous year for the domestic box office that began with serious doubts over the cinema sector’s commercial viability and ended with the second biggest opening weekend of all-time. Studios took the reset provided by the Covid-19 pandemic to test new release models and shorter theatrical windows. Results of that experimentation were mixed. Of the ten highest-grossing films in North America in 2021, only one (Black Widow) was released simultaneously on streaming. Warner Bros., which committed its entire 2021 theatrical slate to open day-and-date on HBO Max, was the only major studio to be absent from the year’s ten highest-earners entirely—despite releasing 20 new films to cinemas. 

The domestic box office began to recover in earnest with the release of Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II, the only film on this list released in the first half of the year, and continued to gain momentum up to the record-setting release of Spider-Man: No Way Home in December. Superhero movies proved the most popular with audiences returning to the cinema. Four of the top five films at the domestic box office in 2021 are based on comic book heroes, while only one of the titles to crack the top ten (Free Guy) is not based on an existing franchise. 

2021 was still a recovery year for the industry despite the success of individual titles. Only three of the year’s top ten domestic earners grossed over $200 million. The isolated success of these films all came in the year’s final trimester—suggesting positive momentum for movie theaters despite the ongoing concerns of the Covid-19 crisis. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Sony Pictures | December 17

Domestic Total: $1.161B

Domestic Opening Weekend: $260.1M

The trailer for Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home set viewership records when it surfaced on YouTube in August. Anticipation around the title reached a fever-pitch once fans caught glimpses of villains from prior iterations of the Spider-Man franchise—creating sustained buzz on social media leading up to the film’s December release. Pre-sales set records at circuits around the world, but few could have predicted it would achieve the second-biggest domestic opening weekend of all-time. The film’s $260 million bow, trailing only Avengers: Endgame, proved tentpoles could thrive at cinemas during the pandemic. Spider-Man: No Way Home outgrossed every other title released throughout the entirety of 2020 and 2021 at the domestic box office in a matter of three-and-a-half days. 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Disney | September 3

Domestic Total: $224.5M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $75.3M

Disney’s first Marvel title to receive theatrical exclusivity during the pandemic, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had the added pressure of being a counterpoint to Black Widow’s day-and-date release. A new superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the smart money was on Shang-Chi getting outperformed by Black Widow, the latter film starring a character introduced an entire decade earlier. Instead, Shang Chi nearly matched Black Widow’s opening weekend and would go on to outearn the previous installment of the MCU saga through its domestic theatrical run. The film sustained its strong performance in theaters through the entirety of Q3 2021, unexpectedly finishing the year as the second-highest grossing title of the year at the domestic box office.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Sony Pictures | October 1

Domestic Total: $212.5M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $90M

The first indication of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s runaway success came with the October release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The antihero sequel swiftly took the pandemic box office crown from Black Widow with a $90 million opening weekend—a benchmark only surpassed by No Way Home in 2021. Despite the pandemic, the Venom sequel is on track to finish on par with the 2018 original at the conclusion of its domestic run in theaters. 

Black Widow

Disney | July 9

Domestic Total: $183.6M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $80.3M

Disney’s Black Widow is the only title that debuted at home simultaneously with theaters to finish 2021 among the year’s ten highest earners. The film’s original release date of May 1, 2020 was pushed back several times due to the pandemic, creating a domino effect on the release schedule due to the sequential nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There were high expectations for the title when it finally committed to a July 9 release. An opening weekend of $80 million set a new benchmark for a day-and-date title, but its availability at home dented earnings early into its theatrical run. Scarlett Johansson, the film’s star, went on to sue Disney for its decision to give the film a day-and-date release, claiming the decision had a detrimental impact on her own earnings.

F9: The Fast Saga

Universal Pictures | June 25

Domestic Total: $173M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $70M

Hitting North American theaters in June 2021 after having been delayed four times due to the pandemic, the arrival of F9 heralded the beginning of the summer movie season—such as it was, with the vaccine rollout still underway and vast segments of the country still unwilling to go to theaters. Still, F9 smashed all previous Covid-era records, building on the success of prior releases Godzilla vs. Kong and A Quiet Place Part II to deliver the highest opening weekend since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It also had, at the time of its release, the highest screen count (4,179) of the pandemic era, thanks to the then-recent reopening of theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

F9 also had aggressive marketing from Universal on its side, including a trailer specifically designed to tout the film as a back-to-theaters experience. The film remained at the top of the box office for three weekends, until it was surpassed by the debut of Disney’s Black Widow.

Read our interview with F9’s Justin Lin here.

Eternals

Disney | November 5

Domestic Total: $164.5M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $71.2M

Eternals was Disney’s third MCU release of the year and the second to hit theaters with a 45-day exclusivity window, as opposed to Black Widow’s day-and-date strategy. As with 2021’s previous MCU release Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals introduced movie audiences to comic book characters they were likely unfamiliar with; unlike Shang-Chi, Eternals had a raft of A-list names (including Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek) to act as a hopeful draw. The two films debuted to roughly similar grosses—$75.3M on 4,300 screens for Shang-Chi, $71.2M on 4,090 screens for Eternals—though Eternals failed to keep up with the earlier film, dropping 62 percent in its second weekend (compared to Shang-Chi’s 54%) and coming short of Shang-Chi’s domestic cume by some $60-odd million. Mixed reviews were certainly a factor (Eternals is the first MCU film to be rated “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes), as was increased competition in the run-up to the holiday corridor. 

No Time to Die

MGM/UA | October 8

Domestic Total: $160.7M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $55.2M

Moving the release of a James Bond movie is no easy task. Brand partnerships, junkets scheduled in countries around the world, tie-ins from luxury car and alcohol brands—even the title song—require careful coordination with stakeholders across a number of companies. The original marketing campaign for No Time to Die was paused shortly after launching ahead of its originally scheduled April 2020 release due to the onset of the pandemic. With the duration of the Covid-19 crisis still unclear, the decision to reschedule its release to November 2020 seemed like a safe bet to give the distribution teams at MGM/UA and Universal enough time to market the film. By Fall 2020, it became clear that wouldn’t be the case—pushing No Time to Die to 2021. Anticipation for the film had grown somewhat stale by the time of its release on October 8, with some marketing materials dating back to the Spring of 2020. Its $55 million debut helped sustain Q3’s momentum at the box office, but still fell short of the heights reached by Venom: Let There Be Carnage just a week prior.

A Quiet Place Part II

Paramount | May 28

Domestic Total: $160M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $47.5M

Reviews were out, tickets had been sold, and everything was in place for A Quiet Place Part II to hit its March 20, 2020 release when, in a matter of days, the world changed. A marketing machine that had already included a Super Bowl trailer, talk show appearances from its stars, and a world premiere at Lincoln Center had to be shelved as cinemas around the world closed due to the pandemic. A Quiet Place Part II faced multiple delays as Paramount, intent on releasing the title in cinemas, waited for an optimal release corridor during the Covid-19 crisis. Plans to launch the film in May and September 2020 were scrapped in favor of an April 2021 release—until Paramount went back on those plans as well. Fans were resigned to wait for the film to finally hit theaters in September 2021 when director John Krasinski announced on Twitter that the film would be moving up its release (a rarity in the pandemic era) to May 28, Memorial Day weekend. Released exclusively in cinemas with a 45-day window, A Quiet Place Part II nearly matched the $50 million opening weekend of the original and went on to become the only film released in the first half of 2021 to crack the year’s top ten earners at the domestic box office. 

Read our interview with A Quiet Place Part II’s Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn here.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Sony Pictures | November 19

Domestic Total: $121.18M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $44M

With Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Sony grabbed the first, third, and ninth spots on 2021’s top ten list—a step up from 2019, when only Spider-Man: Far From Home cracked the top ten list at spot number seven. Though No Way Home is undoubtedly Sony’s biggest 2021 success story, the domestic performance of Ghostbusters: Afterlife is another point in favor of the studio’s theatrical-first approach to distribution during the pandemic; though select Sony titles have been sold off to streamers over the last two years, the studio remained committed to theatrical exclusivity, something that was made abundantly clear by studio exes at this year’s CinemaCon. (Where, incidentally, Afterlife director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman were the only stars in attendance.) The film had a strong footprint on PLF and Imax screens ($3.7M of the film’s opening weekend gross came from Imax alone) and boasted a strong hold over the following weeks, facing little competition by way of big-budget blockbusters until after Thanksgiving. 

Read our interview with Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s Jason Reitman here. 

Free Guy

Disney | August 13

Domestic Total: $121.6M

Domestic Opening Weekend: $28.3M

Disney’s 20th Century Studios division, a remnant of its 20th Century Fox acquisition, had a poor track record at the box office in 2021 with lackluster earnings for titles like West Side Story, The King’s Man, and The Last Duel. The late summer release of Free Guy is the sole exception to that cold streak. The biggest sleeper hit of 2021 is the only title among the year’s ten highest-grossing films at the domestic box office to not be associated with an existing franchise. Disney granted the original title theatrical exclusivity, and the film responded by surpassing better-known properties like Dune, Halloween Kills, and Godzilla vs. Kong at the box office in North America. 

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Year in Review: The Biggest Stories, Surprises, and Disappointments of 2021 at the Box Office

Meme stocks, failed mergers, and a Billion dollar earner—our look back at a tumultuous recovery year for exhibition.

For a detailed recap of 2021 for the global exhibition industry, click here to access our in-depth report.

Listen to our full analysis of 2021 at the box office in this week’s special year-end episode of The Boxoffice Podcast

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THE BIGGEST STORIES OF THE YEAR FOR DOMESTIC THEATRICAL EXHIBITION

SVOG 

An economic lifeline for cinemas, the federal government’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program helped movie theaters in the United States stay in business through the hardest months of the pandemic. Cinemas’ inclusion in the Save Our Stages act of SVOG wasn’t a guarantee, requiring lobbying efforts by the National Association of Theatre Owners to ensure movie theaters could benefit from the program.

AMC’s Retail Investors

Publicly-traded companies were not eligible to receive SVOG funds, leaving the country’s leading cinema chains to brave the effects of the pandemic on the stock market. AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema chain, felt this pressure more than any other company in the United States—acting as a lightning rod for assumptions on the cinema industry’s viability at large. After years of bad breaks on the market—and a share price that hit a low of $1.91 in early January—AMC experienced an unexpected boost from a surge of retail investors during Q1 2021. The grassroots movement was labeled as the “Meme Stock” craze by the financial press—but AMC leaned into its newfound popularity to ensure it would be more than just a passing fad. The company opened its own retail investor portal, giving new shareholders perks at their theaters nationwide and actively involving the new community as part of its corporate culture. AMC finished the year trading at levels it hadn’t seen since Q1 2017. 

Scarlett Johansson Sues Disney Over Black Widow Day-and-Date PVOD

Theatrical exclusivity was the most contentious topic of 2020 for the exhibition industry. The pandemic forced major circuits to accept a drastically reduced theatrical exclusivity window in 2021. There was little consensus as to what the future would hold for theatrical exclusivity, especially following Disney’s decision to release the first Marvel title of the pandemic, Black Widow, day-and-date on Premium Video-on-Demand with cinemas. The decision didn’t sit well with theater owners, but it was the film’s star, Scarlett Johansson, that took the studio to court for its unilateral decision to forgo theatrical exclusivity for the title. Johansson’s lawsuit insisted the day-and-date decision had a detrimental effect on the financial terms she agreed upon when signing on to make the film. The matter highlighted the economic ripple effects of forgoing theatrical exclusivity, firmly establishing the creative community as key stakeholders in future decisions around windows.

Cineplex and Cineworld Go to Court

Cineworld abandoned its intended acquisition of Cineplex, Canada’s largest movie theater chain, in 2020, citing “certain breaches” in the terms that would have made it the largest cinema circuit in the world. Instead of putting Cineworld in pole position among global theater chains, the deal sent the two circuits to courts–with an Ontario judge ruling in favor of Cineplex in December. Cineworld is currently in the process of appealing that decision, which would have it pay its former acquisition target over $900 million in damages. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home Becomes the Second-Highest Grossing FIlm of the Pandemic

There were several milestones during the domestic box office’s recovery in 2021 that led to the record-setting release of Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home in December. Warner Bros.’ Godzilla vs. Kong kicked off Q2 with a solid $50 million debut from a six-day holiday frame over Easter. The monster showdown became the first day-and-date title to gross $100 million at the box office and coincided with a marked uptick in vaccine availability in the United States. The positive momentum was sustained after Paramount moved up the release of A Quiet Place Part II to May 28, scoring a $57 million bow over Memorial day weekend. 

F9: The Fast Saga became Hollywood’s first global blockbuster of the pandemic era in June, earning $173 million domestically en route to a $726.2 million worldwide cume. The second half of the summer welcomed hits like Disney’s Black Widow in July and 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy in August before Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings capped off a strong Q3 in September. 

Q4 was dominated by Sony, with the studio releasing theatrically-exclusive tentpoles in October (Venom: Let There Be Carnage) and November (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) before Spider-Man: No Way Home broke the all-time box office record for a December release. The first pandemic title to cross $1 billion at the global box office, Spider-Man: No Way Home proved tentpoles can still thrive at cinemas.

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THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE YEAR AT THE DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Funimation)

Cinemas in the United States reopening in the Spring faced a dearth of high-profile studio titles to program on their screens. The market conditions created an opportunity for distributors of more niche titles to get better visibility. Anime title Demon Slayer: Mugen Train locked down 1,600 screens when it opened against Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat 3,000+ locations on April 23. It nearly upset the studio film for the top spot over their opening weekend despite playing in nearly half the screens. Demon Slayer sustained its momentum in the following weeks, topping the box office in its second frame and notching another second place finish in its third week. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train went on to earn $47.7 million over its theatrical run in North America. A record-setting $364.7 million hau in its native Japan dating back to 2020 helped lift the title to over $450 million worldwide—setting a new benchmark for an anime title. 

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THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS OF THE YEAR AT THE DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE

Coda (Apple) 

Apple broke the Sundance sales record when it scooped up Coda for a whopping $25 million in January. The move suggested a bold ambition from the streamer, entering 2021 with a title that could easily crossover from the art house to the multiplex. Instead, Coda received what amounted to a token theatrical release, reaching a high of 101 locations in the United States during its second week, available to only a select number of theaters across the country. In a year that saw Netflix breakthrough to major circuits (with limited exclusivity windows) and the CEO of AMC personally host a screening of an Amazon awards contender, Amazon’s minimal effort in making Coda available to theaters over the summer amounted to one of the biggest letdowns of 2021 for specialty theaters that could have easily eventized its theatrical run ahead of awards season. Apple’s strategy shifted notably in December with the release of another awards contender, Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, granting the title twenty days of theatrical exclusivity and a wider release in theaters.

Broadway at the Movies: In the Heights (Warner Bros.), Dear Evan Hansen (Universal), West Side Story (20th Century Studios).

Older audiences have been the slowest to return to the movies since domestic cinemas re-opened during the pandemic. The downturn was most evident when assessing the box office performance of the three Broadway musicals that failed to connect with viewers on the big screen. Warner Bros.’ In the Heights was the best positioned to succeed out of the three. Released during the summer months, in the brief span that saw widespread access to vaccines and before the emergence of the Delta variant, the title also counted on the name recognition of creator Lin-Manuel Miranda–whose Hamilton drew strong interest in 2020 on streaming through Disney+. Warner Bros.’ binding decision to commit its entire 2021 theatrical slate to stream day-and-date on HBOMax, at no additional cost to subscribers, didn’t help the film’s lackluster $11.5 million debut. 

The poor opening of In the Heights raised concerns about the performance of the two other Broadway hits remaining on the schedule, Universal’s Dear Evan Hansen and 20th Century Studios’ West Side Story. Disappointingly, neither of those films were able to improve on the day-and-date box office of the In the Heights. Hampered by poor reviews, Dear Evan Hansen opened to $7.4 million in September. Despite receiving strong support from critics, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story crashed at the box office with a $10.5 million bow in December. 

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OUR FAVORITE MOVIEGOING MOMENTS OF 2021

West Side Story
By Chris Eggertsen, Analyst

I didn’t know how much I missed going to movie theaters until I saw West Side Story at an advance screening in early December. My personal peak came during Spielberg’s breathtaking daylight reinterpretation of “America,” a shot of pure cinema every bit as thrilling as the T-Rex sequence in Jurassic Park or Elliot’s nighttime bicycle flight in E.T. There’s simply no way it would have had the same effect on a small screen.

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Hamaguchi and Villeneuve Advocate for the Moviegoing Experience
By Daniel Loria, Editorial Director

I hadn’t realized how much of my personal and professional life was tied to going to the movies until the disruption of 2020. 

From a work perspective, I covered a couple of film festivals from home in 2020 and early 2021. While I thought Sundance provided the best digital version a festival could provide at home, there was still something fundamentally off in being among the first people to watch a film—while being able to hear the dishwasher running in the kitchen. I followed my colleagues’ coverage of Cannes intently online, so when the New York Film Festival came around—the All-Star Game of film festivals—I wound up attending more screenings than ever before. 

The highlight of that experience was catching Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car in its U.S. premiere at a packed Walter Reade Theater. I’m a big fan of the original story’s author, Haruki Murakami, and had finished reading the book where the source story appears in the subway ride down to the screening. I first saw Hamaguchi’s work at home, during the pandemic, watching the entirety of the Happy Hour trilogy and Asako I and II with my wife after dinner as a sort of cinematic binge watch. Drive My Car was my first time seeing one of his films on the big screen, and I remember such a distinct energy in the auditorium once the opening credits appeared on screen 45 minutes into the running time. A couple of weeks later I went to Film Forum with my wife to see Hamaguchi’s other 2021 release, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, for our first dinner-and-a-movie date in the West Village since this whole mess began. That was equally as special.

On a personal level, I went to see Denis Villeneuve’s Dune on IMAX at the AMC Lincoln Square in NYC in a midweek matinee. I was surprised the auditorium was as full as it was—I figured it must have been repeat viewers. I quickly realized why. Dune proved to be the best IMAX experience I’ve ever had, I was completely blown away by the presentation. I enjoyed the technical aspects of seeing it at a cinema so much that I returned to the same theater by myself two days later to see it again in another premium format, Dolby Cinema, so I could experience it with a Dolby Atmos track. This is a film that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to, that was available to stream at home on HBO Max, but that I went out of my way to see twice—on premium formats—because of the theatrical experience alone.

It isn’t a coincidence that both Hamaguchi and Villeneuve have been among the most vocal filmmakers in advocating for the moviegoing experience since the onset of the pandemic. Hamaguchi was heavily involved in a fundraising campaign for Japan’s art house cinemas—following up that advocacy by releasing two (great) new films since cinemas reopened. Villeneuve did not hesitate to put his own money on the line when speaking out against his employers in their unilateral decision to make Dune available to stream at home day-and-date through HBOMax, even when there was no guarantee he’d be given the opportunity to direct a sequel. Based on the films they released in 2021, and my experience watching them in a cinema, Hamaguchi and Villeneuve are the filmmakers of the year in 2021.

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Spectacle’s Reopening Mystery Double Feature (Despite the Hurricane)
by Rebecca Pahle, Deputy Editor

My best moviegoing experience of 2021 was also one of my worst—and if that doesn’t sum up the vibe of the last two years, I don’t know what does.

Movie theaters in New York City were slower to open than those in most of the rest of the country—and a particular theater I enjoy, the volunteer-run Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn, stayed closed for even longer than required. They reopened their doors to audiences for the first time since the onset of Covid on the night of Wednesday, September 1 with a mystery double feature. I love the Spectacle, I love mystery screenings… I had to go, even if its location and the showtime meant I probably wouldn’t be getting home until quite late. The films turned out to be ones I really enjoyed and that benefited from the big-screen experience: Andrzej Zulawski’s The Devil (1972) and Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971).

So: Worth it! Until I got out of the theater at midnight and realized that, due to a combination of work and mentally being off in my own little universe, I had failed to realize that, while I was watching the double-feature, Hurricane Ida was rolling through the city, leaving flooding in its wake and shutting down mass transit. Had I not gotten very lucky and found probably the last still-working cab in Brooklyn around 1:30AM, I would have faced either a five-mile walk home in torrential rain with a broken umbrella or a night in the subway station. Texts from loved ones asked: You knew the weather was awful. You knew there was a hurricane coming. Why did you go to the Spectacle? To me it was, and is, a no-brainer. It was their first night back. I wanted to support them, and I wanted to see whatever madness they had cooking for the occasion. I missed it, and I wanted to feel normal, and I wasn’t going to let the weather stand in my way. Might have been a dumb call. But still: No regrets

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Spider-Man: No Way Home
by Jesse Rifkin, Analyst

There’s a reason Spider-Man: No Way Home ranks among IMDb users’ 10 highest rated films of all time — alongside The Godfather, 12 Angry Men, and Schindler’s List — while no other 2021 title even cracks the top 100. Scorsese famously compared Marvel movies to “theme parks” and “not cinema,” accusing the studio of pandering to audiences rather than challenging them. But 2020 challenged all of us like never before. In 2021, movie experiences like this weren’t “pandering” — they were cathartic. I’ve only seen a few movies theatrically where the audience applauded even once. At my screening, I counted four such moments.”

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A Gradual Return to Normality
By Shawn Robbins, Chief Analyst

My favorite moviegoing experience is a harder question to answer this year—I’m just glad I have enough moments to pick from, to be honest! The one that’s freshest in my mind is Spider Man: No Way Home, of course, that is going to be near the top of my list for a long time to come. Not just for the movie itself but the crowd experience. I’d also include things like Free Guy. Seeing that at the end of summer was another one of those feel good movies where I was laughing the entire time, and it felt good to do that in a theater with an audience. A Quiet Place Part II, after seven months of having seen it, still ranks as one of my all-time favorite horror sequels. There are so many to pick from—No Time to Die, Dune—and there are a lot I still want to catch up on. It’s quite the turnaround from a year ago, when the best thing I could think of was finally getting a chance to see Inception on IMAX for its 10th anniversary re-release, that was the big movie of the year for me. This year things were obviously a bit more normal and I really can’t wait for next year because it looks like we’re going to keep up this momentum and see a lot more normality return to the release schedule.

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In the Heights
by Laura Silver, Managing Editor

Watching In the Heights at the AMC Eden Prairie Mall in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, was my favorite moviegoing moment of 2021 — thanks to the couple sitting in our row. We loved the beautiful singing and dancing and the heartfelt story, but we really enjoyed listening to them enjoy the show. They laughed, they gasped, they murmured their approval, and basically mirrored every one of our reactions. It made a great movie even better.

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Russia’s Karo Announces the Opening of Six New Multiplexes

Russian cinema chain Karo has announced the opening of six new theaters in the coming weeks. The Neva, Rassvet, Mars, and Vysota theaters, all in Moscow, will open December 30, with theaters in Budapest, Hungary and Sophia, Bulgaria to follow in January of 2022.

Each of the new theaters will boast amenities designed to maximize customer satisfaction, including full recliner seating, automated ticketing systems, and “u-choose” food and beverage stations. In addition to multiplex offerings, the cinemas will screen more niche fare through the chain’s KINO.Art project. Private cinema rentals—dubbed “Hall Keys”—will be made available, building on the success the chain has had with such rentals during the Covid era. Between December 1, 2020 and December 1, 2021, Karo hosted more than 500 private rental events.

Says Karo Group Executive Chairman and CEO Paul Heth of the new cinema openings: “The Russian filming market is number 1 in Europe and month after month is breaking pre-pandemic box-office records, which means that moviegoers really value the opportunity to watch releases on the big screen. To make this experience even more enjoyable, we are opening even more venues that meet all the standards of a new generation cinemas.” Adds Karo president Olga Zinyakova:

“Most importantly, the new cinemas offer premium services at affordable prices. We are very responsible in terms of safety of our guests, and therefore most of the processes in the cinema are automated. Both movie tickets and cinema bar products can be purchased online. In the near future, our guests will enjoy 10 family titles, 4 comedies, sports drama, adventures, festivals and retrospectives of world classics.”

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Spider-Man: No Way Home Becomes Highest-Grossing Film in Sony Pictures’ History

Days after becoming the first film of the pandemic era to cross the $1 billion mark at the box office, Spider-Man: No Way Home has broken yet another record, becoming the highest-grossing film in Sony Pictures’ history.

Said record was previously held by 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, which grossed $1.13B worldwide. Currently, No Way Home‘s global cume stands at $1.16M, split across $516.4 domestic and $644.9 internationally. The film’s top international markets, as of Tuesday the 28th, were the United Kingdom ($76.6M), Mexico ($57.9M), South Korea ($43.2M), France ($42.1M), and Australia ($35.9M). Notably absent from the list is China, where Spider-Man: No Way Home has not yet been released, making the film’s record-breaking haul all the more impressive. (Far From Home did screen in China, to the tune of $198.9M over its run.)

Further potentially limiting factors in No Way Home‘s release was a new series of Covid-imposed shutdowns and restrictions affecting certain international markets during the film’s opening two weekends; these include Quebec (where theaters were subject to limited capacity, then ordered to close days later) and British Columbia (50% capacity) in Canada, as well as curfews in South Korea and cinema closures in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium—though Belgium has since re-opened their cinemas.

Top International market cumes through Tuesday, December 28

United Kingdom	$76.6 million
Mexico	$57.9 million
South Korea	$43.2 million
France	$42.1 million
Australia	$35.9 million
Brazil	$35.6 million
India	$30.9 million
Russia	$30.1 million
Germany	$23.2 million
Italy	$21.0 million
Spain	$18.5 million
Hong Kong	$14.1 million
Taiwan	$13.2 million
Argentina	$12.0 million
Malaysia	$10.8 million

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New Year’s Weekend Box Office Forecast: Spider-Man: No Way Home Targets 3rd #1 Frame as Omicron Caution Continues through Holiday Stretch

The movie industry will say goodbye to 2021 and welcome 2022 with Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: No Way Home ringing in the new year atop the box office for a third straight weekend as holdovers set the pace of the coming holiday frame.

The web-slinging phenom has amassed $516.4 million domestically and $1.16 billion worldwide through Tuesday, December 28, making it Sony’s highest grossing film in history on both counts. With that daily tally, No Way Home became the third fastest of all-time to surpass the $500 million domestic threshold — doing so in 12 days. Only Avengers: Endgame (8) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (10) bested it.

Although last weekend’s haul came in on the lower end of expectations, No Way Home remains the driving force of the market. Christmas Eve softened initial weekend performance before an expected Christmas Day bump, but continued concerns surrounding the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are skewing all projection models even for holdover business.

The holiday corridor is notorious for producing wonky trajectories at the daily box office, but that’s a challenge now compounded by the state of the lingering pandemic.

Sing 2 did, however, come close to low-end long range expectations with a $39.55 million five-day debut last week — even though that fell shy of final forecasts. Those were admittedly more bullish in the wake of Spider-Man‘s massive success and Sing 2‘s own strong pre-sales and November sneak preview sellouts. Clearly, however, families remain cautious as women over 35 — and mothers, especially — pay close attention to the rise in COVID cases at the start of winter.

Nevertheless, Sing 2 remains the top animated performer of the pandemic so far with $47 million earned domestically in six days. That bests Encanto‘s $41.8 million six-day start last month after a Thanksgiving week launch. Positive word of mouth and theatrical exclusivity should aid Sing 2‘s second weekend performance as those families coming back to theaters take in one last chance to do so before school and work resume next week.

Elsewhere, The Matrix Resurrections fell far short of even conservative expectations with a $22.5 million five-day bow through Sunday, and lukewarm reception isn’t helping it. The sequel sank over 63 percent from Sunday to Monday, an unusual drop during the holidays even for a weekday performance. Given the history of Warner Bros.’ hybrid releases to experience sharp second weekend declines throughout 2021, it wouldn’t be surprising if Resurrections follows suit despite no competition entering the market and a holiday weekend in a play.

The King’s Man also fell on the low end of forecasts last week, overshadowed by the No Way Home behemoth due to significant crossover appeal with male audiences. The somewhat-older portion of that demographic could help King‘s somewhat through the remaining holiday sessions, but the damage is likely done at this point as the market simply was too saturated with male-driven action films as pandemic concerns remain in play.

American Underdog somewhat bucked the trend of under-performances last weekend, though, as it landed close to pre-release forecasts. Whether it ends up being front-loaded by faith-based audiences or shows some staying power through the new year remains to be seen, but word of mouth is strong.

Meanwhile, Licorice Pizza should continue enjoying its nationwide expansion with strong reception and a likely award season run to come after the holidays.

All around, while New Year’s 2010-2011 mostly saw films increase from Christmas weekend with only a few exceptions, we’re revising models to a more conservative spectrum at this stage given the abnormalities present in recent weeks — namely Spider-Man‘s must-see dominance in tandem with ongoing Omicron impact.

Weekend Forecast

Boxoffice projects between a 25 to 35 percent decrease for this weekend’s top ten films from last weekend’s $141.1 million top ten aggregate. 

Film	Distributor	3-Day Weekend Forecast	Projected Domestic Total through Sunday, January 2	Location Count	% Change from Last Wknd
Spider-Man: No Way Home	Sony Pictures / Columbia / Marvel Studios	$52,500,000	$609,000,000		-38%
Sing 2	Universal Pictures	$18,100,000	$85,700,000		-18%
American Underdog	Lionsgate / Kingdom Story Company	$5,400,000	$16,400,000		-8%
The Matrix Resurrections	Warner Bros. Pictures	$5,300,000	$34,600,000		-56%
The King’s Man	Disney / 20th Century Studios	$4,500,000	$19,100,000		-24%
West Side Story (2021)	Disney / 20th Century Studios	$2,500,000	$29,500,000		-12%
A Journal for Jordan	Sony Pictures / Columbia	$1,900,000	$5,700,000		-13%
Licorice Pizza	United Artists Releasing	$1,600,000	$6,700,000		-17%
Encanto	Walt Disney Pictures	$1,400,000	$91,800,000		-23%
Ghostbusters: Afterlife	Sony Pictures / Columbia	$1,000,000	$122,900,000		-16%

All forecasts are subject to revision before the first confirmation of Thursday previews or Friday estimates from studios or official sources.

Theater counts are updated as confirmed by studios. The above table does not necessarily represent the top ten as some studios do not finalize weekend location counts and/or an intent to report box office returns prior to publishing.

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Pedro Almodóvar on the Importance of Cinema’s Recovery from the Pandemic

In conjunction with the release of his film Parallel Mothers, Pedro Almodóvar speaks to Boxoffice Pro on his feelings about the worldwide cinematic recovery. Read Daniel Loria’s conversation with

Almodóvar, reprinted from our Centennial issue, here.

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Spanish cinemas are still not out of the crisis, but it looks like we’ve turned a corner with the release of Dune and the James Bond movie [No Time to Die]. The situation should improve now that cinemas are reopening at full capacity. To be perfectly honest, it’s not like there were a lot of very interesting movies being released until recently, but more are coming out now. We opened Parallel Mothers in Spain in October and finished well, under the circumstances, in third place behind James Bond and The Addams Family 2. The film is doing well, but we are naturally very concerned since things are not back to the way they were before the pandemic.

Hombre,for me, cinema’s recovery is extremely important, because I’m practically exclusively dedicated to this line of work. I was especially busy during the pandemic because the situation was so dramatic that I didn’t want to let it get to me. I shot The Human Voice, a short film with Tilda [Swinton], in English over the summer of 2020, and we took it to Venice. It got a theatrical release—which I wasn’t even expecting, I thought we’d have to launch it on some sort of streaming platform—and came out around the fall of 2021. Then I immediately turned around and started preproduction on this movie, Parallel Mothers, which I finished writing during the stay-at-home orders. Honestly, I’ve been really busy over the last year and a half, so the idea of having one of my movies back in theaters means a lot to me.

There is this great uncertainty out there. Sometimes you get the feeling of being in a business that has already peaked and is being totally overshadowed. But other times … for example, I went to this year’s two most important film festivals, Cannes and Venice. We were in competition in Venice [with Parallel Mothers], and I went to Cannes to give an award to Jodie Foster. And it was so inspiring to see the public’s need to watch movies on the big screen. I’m not talking about mainstream movies; I’m talking about auteur cinema. There was a real hunger from those audiences to see specialty films. I regained a lot of confidence at those two festivals. It gave me hope that the type of movies we make—art house movies—are still very much in demand.

Coming to New York for the New York Film Festival, for me, there is nothing like seeing an auditorium like Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center at full capacity. I don’t know how many people it seats—it felt like 2,000 just judging by the reception of our film. That was a marvelous experience. It was such a warm reception, and it dispelled a lot of concerns I had about Parallel Mothers being too Spanish for international audiences because of the issues I tackle in the film. Having screened the film in New York and Venice, I feel confident international audiences won’t have a problem connecting with it.

I remember I started to go to the movies at a very early age, in the late 1950s. During that time, Spain was a country that would take many years to become a place a person like me could comfortably live in. Years from being a place a person like me would want to live in. For me, back then, the cinema was a parallel universe—the type of universe I wanted to live in. The type of universe you’d only dream about, one that seemed a lot more appealing than the harsh realities of the postwar era. During that difficult time, the cinema represented for me and for the people of my country a much better place to live, visit, and dream than the reality we all lived in.

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SPECIALTY BOX OFFICE: Licorice Pizza Cracks Top 10 in Expansion, Parallel Mothers Scores Second-Best PSA of Christmas Weekend

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza (United Artists Releasing) expanded to 786 runs in 133 markets in North America on Christmas Day. The film originally opened in platform release over the Thanksgiving holiday, holding exclusive engagements in four 70mm auditoriums in New York and Los Angeles over its first four weeks in the market. With the expansion, the film earned $1.22 million on Saturday and dropped only 10 percent on Sunday to finish the three-day weekend with a $2.32 million haul. Licorice Pizza has now earned a total of $3.66 million in North America. The majority (66%) of its audience throughout the North American release has been between the ages of 18 and 34.

Reliance Entertainment scored one of the highest per-screen averages of the three-day frame with the Hindi title ‘83. The sports movie opened on 481 screens in North America, grossing $1.76 million over the weekend for a $3,662 average and cracking the weekend’s top ten.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (Searchlight Pictures) dropped 53% in its sophomore frame, earning $1.3 million from 2,135 screens. The title was overshadowed by opening against Spider-Man: No Way Home last weekend, struggling to gain traction over its first hold in a crowded Christmas market. the domestic run for Nightmare Alley currently stands at $5.4 million.

Sean Baker’s Red Rocket (A24) expanded to 377 screens on Christmas Day, finishing the three-day frame with a $150k tally. The film received a platform debut on 6 screens on December 10, going to expand to 16 locations last weekend. The holiday weekend puts the film’s domestic cume at $372k.

Read our interview with Red Rocket director Sean Baker.

Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers (Sony Pictures Classics) began its run in North America with $41k from 3 screens, giving it a per-screen average of $13,692. The title’s performance in platform release finished second in per-screen average for the weekend, only behind Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film began its release in select European markets in October, where it is already approaching the $10 million mark.

Read our interview with Parallel Mothers director Pedro Almodóvar.

Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch (Searchlight Pictures) is winding down its North American run after grossing $40k from 70 locations over the three-day weekend, its tenth in release. The film has earned a total of $15.92 million domestically, ranking between 2007’s The Darjeeling Limited ($12M) and 1998’s Rushmore ($17M).

Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (Apple/A24) opened in 12 markets over the weekend. Apple and A24 did not provide box office figures, as has become customary of streaming titles, but did report “multiple sellouts” in the film’s opening weekend. The film will continue its overseas rollout in the coming weeks, with its streaming debut on Apple TV+ scheduled for January 14.

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WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Spider-Man: No Way Home Swings to $81.5M 3-Day/$138.7M 5-Day, Crosses $1B Worldwide; Sing 2 ($23.8M/$41M) Tops The Matrix Resurrections ($12M/$22.5M) for 2nd Place

Amid the most crowded theatrical marketplace of new releases since the start of the pandemic, Sony/Marvel’s record-breaking Spider-Man: No Way Home predictably remained the top draw at the box office over the Christmas weekend, pulling in an estimated $81.5M over the three-day and $138.7M over the five-day in its sophomore frame.

The superhero blockbuster towered over all newcomers, though the Universal sequel Sing 2 proved a popular alternative option for families. Mixed results were in store for the remainder of this weekend’s crop of fresh releases, which included the long-awaited reboot The Matrix Resurrections, action prequel The King’s Man, faith-based football biopic American Underdog and fact-based drama A Journal for Jordan. Meanwhile, United Artists expanded the arthouse hit Licorice Pizza to 786 locations.

Hovering over the packed lineup was the rising threat posed by the Omicron variant, which has resulted in a major surge of Covid-19 infections across North America and likely caused many to rethink their plans to hit the multiplex over the weekend, particularly with families gathered in close quarters for the holiday. Not to mention, Christmas Eve fell on a Friday this year, which inevitably dampened turnout.  

Nonetheless, Spider-Man: No Way Home, which debuted to a massive $260.1M last weekend – the second largest of any film to date – continued drawing crowds to rival any pre-pandemic release with a first-place finish from 4,336 locations, though it did fall a steeper-than-expected 69% from its opening frame. Its ten-day gross is the third-highest of all time, the second-highest in December and the third-highest for a superhero movie.

While falling short of the vaunted $100M threshold – a number surpassed by only six films in domestic box office history – No Way Home‘s sophomore weekend is still impressive, particularly given the current heightened state of the pandemic. Through Sunday, the latest installment in the sprawling MCU franchise has taken in an incredible $467.3M, putting it about $14M ahead of the pace of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, which had $453.1M at the same point in its run. It boasted the third-highest Christmas Day gross of all time on Saturday with an estimated $31.7M.

Globally, Spider-Man: No Way Home surpassed the $1B threshold in only its second weekend with $1.05B to date, including $587.1M from overseas. Internationally, No Way Home grossed an estimated $121.4M from 61 territories this weekend, with a drop of 57% across repeating markets. Here’s a breakdown of the top territories:

Market	Weekend	Cume to Date
United Kingdom	$7.5M	$68.9M
Mexico	$6.8M	$52.8M
South Korea	$12.5M	$41.1M
France	$9.6M	$35.8M
Brazil	$5.0M	$31.7M
Australia	$5.1M	$31.4M
India	$4.8M	$29.7M
Russia	$6.3M	$28.5M
Italy	$5.1M	$21.2M
Germany	$4.6M	$20.0M
Spain	$2.3M	$16.5M
Hong Kong	$3.9M	$13.0M
Taiwan	$2.8M	$12.5M
Argentina	$1.2M	$10.8M
Malaysia	$2.9M	$10.0M

Opening in second place was Sing 2, which took advantage of the family-friendly Christmas corridor and posted an estimated $23.76M over the three-day weekend and $41M since Wednesday from 3,892 locations (those numbers include $1.6M from November sneak previews). While that three-day start is lower than the first film in the series, which grossed $32.2M over the same weekend in 2016, it bears repeating that Omicron concerns likely depressed turnout among family audiences given that many children still aren’t fully vaccinated – while children under the age of 5 aren’t yet eligible to receive the vaccine at all.

While Sing 2 debuted lower than many analysts had expected, this was a relatively good result for the follow-up, which clearly profited from being the first major animated film to hit theaters since Disney’s Encanto debuted over the Thanksgiving frame. It debuted just a couple of notches lower than that film, which had a three-day opening of $27.2M. Predictably, nearly two-thirds of the audience (64%) was made up of parents and children under the age of 12.

On the positive side, Sing 2 has the remainder of the holiday corridor to take advantage of schools being closed. If it can boast anywhere near the legs of its predecessor – which legged it to a terrific $270.5M domestic total – it may well remain a sturdy performer over the next few weeks, particularly given its exclusivity in theaters. Sing 2’s 67% Rotten Tomatoes score is just a tick below that of the first film, which finished with a 71% average. Its audience rating on Cinemascore, meanwhile, is a perfect A+, while its RT Audience Score is 97%, boding well for the film’s word-of-mouth potential.

Overseas, Sing 2 took in an additional $19.2M from 38 territories, including 22 new openings, bringing its international tally to $24.8M and its global total to $65.8M. The film opened to $6M in France (including $2.1M from sneak previews), $3.6M in Mexico (including $1.1M in previews), $2.4M in Russia, $1.6M in Spain (including $0.7M in previews) and $1.3M in Australia (including $0.6M in previews).

The Matrix Resurrections debuted in third place with an estimated $12M over the three-day weekend and $22.5M over the five-day from 3,552 locations. That’s the lowest three-day opening for an installment in the long-dormant franchise by far, though of course the film’s day-and-date opening on HBO Max – among other factors – made that an all but inevitable outcome.

So, what are those aforementioned other factors that may have dampened turnout for Resurrections this weekend? Aside from the obvious – that being the Omicron surge – what remains undeniable is The Matrix series’ checkered history with fans. After wowing audiences with its first entry in 1999 and rising to sleeper-blockbuster status, the franchise reached its box office peak with Reloaded four years later but dropped off sharply with third installment Revolutions, which wound up grossing less than the first film thanks to poor word-of-mouth, with fans largely decrying the sequels’ convoluted plots. That may have led audiences who saw the original trilogy to sit out the latest entry (at least in theaters).

Another indisputable element affecting turnout for Resurrections is the fact that it’s been nearly two decades since the last sequel was released, meaning a substantial portion of the Gen Z audience is simply unfamiliar with the series. That made marketing to the younger demographic a challenge, particularly with a film like Spider-Man: No Way Home currently sucking up all the theatrical dollars. Lastly, while reviews for Resurrections were on the positive side of mixed, they probably weren’t glowing enough to convince reticent moviegoers, including those who felt burned by Reloaded and Revolutions, to buy a ticket.

The overall Cinemascore for Resurrections was a B-, while the under-25 segment of the audience, which comprised just 18% of the opening weekend crowd, gave it a B. Meanwhile, men made up the majority of the audience at 61%.

Internationally, Resurrections grossed an estimated $35M from 75 markets, bringing its total overseas gross to $47.3M and its global tally to $69.8M. Top-grossing markets this weekend included the U.K. ($3.9M), France ($3.1M), Mexico ($2.2M), Germany ($1.7M), Hong Kong ($1.5M), Brazil, Japan, Korea, Spain (all $1.4M) and Taiwan ($1.2M). Grosses in Australia, where the film opened today, are expected at $1.4M. Resurrections will hit theaters in China on January 14.

Landing in fourth place was the Disney-released 20^th Century Studios title The King’s Man, a prequel to the popular Kingsman action series, which debuted exclusively in theaters. With an estimated $6.35M over the three-day frame and $10M over the five-day from 3,180 locations, the film came in well below previous entries Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which grossed an estimated $36.2M and $39M, respectively, over their three-day opening frames. Reviews for the new installment were underwhelming – it has a 43% average on Rotten Tomatoes – though it garnered a 76% Audience Score on RT and a B+ Cinemascore from viewers.

It’s worth noting that The King’s Man lacked a footprint on premium screens, which are dominated by films like No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections. Strong competition from those action-oriented titles also inevitably hurt the prequel’s box office chances this weekend. The film skewed heavily male over its opening frame, with men making up 65% of the audience. Fifty-four percent of the opening weekend crowd fell in the 18-34 age range.

Overseas, The King’s Man took in an additional $6.9M from seven territories, including Korea ($3.5M), Japan ($2.1M) and Indonesia ($0.6M); it opened at No. 2 in all three of those markets. The film also debuted in the U.K. today (Sunday), with the studio projecting an opening-day gross of $0.5M.

In fifth place was Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s biopic American Underdog, which stars Shazam! lead Zachary Levi as NFL player and Super Bowl champion Kurt Warner. Landing squarely in faith-based audiences’ wheelhouse, the drama, released on Christmas Day, capitalized on its feel-good themes to reach an estimated $6.2M for the weekend, despite only playing on Saturday and Sunday. The opening-weekend audience was 52% male and 79% over the age of 25.

Sixth place went to Disney/20^th Century Studios’ West Side Story, which took in an estimated $2.8M over the three-day frame (down just 24%) and $4.19M over the five-day in its third weekend. The total for the Steven Spielberg-directed musical to date is a disappointing $23.9M. Overseas, it took in an additional $1.7M for an international tally of $12.7M and a global total of $36.6M.

Expanding semi-wide on Christmas Day after playing in just 4 locations for four weeks was United Artists’ Licorice Pizza, which grossed an estimated $2.33M over the three-day from 786 locations and $2.35M over the five-day. That landed the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film in seventh place, for a total of $3.67M through Sunday. The studio reports that Licorice Pizza skewed young this weekend, with 66% of the audience in the 18-34 age range.

In eighth place was the weekend’s final wide newcomer, A Journal for Jordan, which debuted with an estimated $2.2M from 2,500 locations after opening on Christmas Day. The Sony romantic drama, which stars Michael B. Jordan and was directed by Denzel Washington, garnered mixed reviews.

Disney’s Encanto, which began streaming for free to Disney+ subscribers beginning on Christmas Eve, dropped a steep 69% this weekend with an estimated $2M over the three-day weekend and $3.87M over the five-day, good for ninth place. That dropoff can be attributed to the film’s streaming availability as well as the entry of Sing 2 in the marketplace. The animated musical has $88.3M through the end of its fifth weekend. Internationally, Encanto grossed an estimated $4.6M from 45 territories for an international total of $105M and a global tally of $193.3M. It is now the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time in Colombia (where the film is set) with a total of $9.7M, as well as the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time in the country.

In tenth place, Reliance Entertainment’s Cricket World Cup-themed Indian drama ’83 grossed an estimated $1.76M over the three-day frame from 481 locations after opening on Friday.

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Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates: December 24-26, 2021

Title	Estimated weekend	% change	Locations	Location change	Average	Total	Weekend	Distributor
Spider-Man: No Way Home	$81,500,000	-69%	4,336	n/c	$18,796	$467,331,855	2	Sony Pictures
Sing 2	$23,760,000		3,892		$6,105	$39,405,000	1	Universal
The Matrix Resurrections	$12,000,000		3,552		$3,378	$22,500,000	1	Warner Bros.
The King’s Man	$6,350,000		3,180		$1,997	$10,009,631	1	20th Century Studios
American Underdog	$6,200,000		2,813		$2,204	$6,200,000	1	Lionsgate
West Side Story	$2,800,000	-23%	2,810	-10	$996	$23,915,766	3	20th Century Studios
Licorice Pizza	$2,327,000	2609%	786	782	$2,961	$3,665,819	5	United Artists Releasing
A Journal for Jordan	$2,200,000		2,500		$880	$2,200,000	1	Sony Pictures
Encanto	$2,000,000	-69%	2,800	-725	$714	$88,277,840	5	Walt Disney
Ghostbusters: Afterlife	$1,235,000	-64%	1,728	-1,554	$715	$120,460,060	6	Sony Pictures
Eternals	$218,000	-82%	360	-1,540	$606	$164,500,534	8	Walt Disney
The French Dispatch	$40,000	-64%	70	-110	$571	$15,925,226	10	Searchlight
Belfast	$25,000	-71%	77	-130	$325	$6,831,520	7	Focus Features

The post WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: <em>Spider-Man: No Way Home</em> Swings to $81.5M 3-Day/$138.7M 5-Day, Crosses $1B Worldwide; <em>Sing 2</em> ($23.8M/$41M) Tops <em>The Matrix Resurrections</em> ($12M/$22.5M) for 2nd Place appeared first on Boxoffice.

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