A very busy slate sees mixed results with hits and misfires around a frigid hit.
The expected flood of releases ahead of the Christmas target brought a varied mixture of titles in theaters. Family action, heavy dramas, awards season hopefuls, and even a misguided horror release were making debuts.
It was a bit of a surprise at the top, and maybe a bigger surprise further down the list, as predictions coming into the weekend were proven to be far off the mark. A foregone winner did better and the also-rans actually stumbled, and all the while a monster hit grew in importance.
1. JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL – $60.1 Million
The experts were unable to wrap their heads around this release, with projections for the weekend ranging all over, from the range of $40 million to possibly as high as $70 million. Friday appeared to bring things to $50 million but then the film swelled on Saturday, experiencing a 20% jump over Friday. Much like the last installment, which had great longterm legs in the states, it is also a hit overseas. The global take already sits at over $200 million.
2. FROZEN 2 – $19.18m
Continuing to be a serious draw, as expected this weekend’s performance has pushed the animated sequel past $350 million domestically, and now sits at over $1 billion worldwide. Amazingly that becomes the SIXTH title from Disney Studios to hit that mark in 2019.
3. KNIVES OUT – $9.25m
The Lionsgate adult whodunnit romp has been a strong performer for 3 weeks now. I still is dropping less than -50% per week and has gathered in almost $80 million to date.
4. RICHARD JEWELL – $5.0m
What has to be considered a major letdown the much-hyped true-life drama from Clint Eastwood was a surprising disappointment. Expected to earn double this figure there is speculation behind how it failed. The media controversy ginned up by the newspaper featured in the film could be one component, with another being that no big stars were in this drama, outside Kathy Bates in a supporting role. All is not disastrous, as there is a chance that some longer-term life can be found. Audiences graded this with an ‘’A’’ CinemaScore, and critics also graded it high. The Saturday numbers saw an uptick as well, a sign that word-of-mouth could be strong as well.
5. BLACK CHRISTMAS – $4.4m
Another disappointment but one with no positive prospects whatsoever. As we detailed on this week’s Disasters In The Making episode this is a remake of the 1974 slasher title but this time is written as a strong feminist lecture. Coming in with a lower total than ‘’Jewell’’ is notable as it was playing on 125 more screens. It actually took a drop of -13% on Saturday, and the audience notes were abysmal, receiving a ‘’D+’’ grade. While it cost a paltry $5 million it will be tough to see this turning a profit down the line.
SEE ALSO— Feminists Have Chosen the Next Type of Movie to Ruin – Now We Get a #MeToo Slasher Film
6. FORD V. FERRARI – $4.1m
The hit from 20th Century Fox – one of its last since the buyout by Disney – is continuing to do well. This coming week it should cross over $100 million.
7. QUEEN & SLIM – $3.6m
The small drama from Universal has quietly drawn over $30 million by now.
8. A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD – $3.35m
Tom Hanks received a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Fred Rogers, and there may be more head to float a slightly disappointing performance of this biopic.
9. DARK WATERS – $2.01m
A hoped-for awards contender it is not generating the interest. In theaters for a month, it has yet to make it to $10 million while sitting in 2,000 theaters.
10. 21 BRIDGES – $1.19m
The underwhelming police procedural is only lingering on the list as a number of older titles saw a deep cut into the number of screens on which they appeared.
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