Weekend Box Office (November 23 - 25, 2018)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND Disney ruled the Thanksgiving holiday box office for the third consecutive year with its latest animated entry, this time topping the charts with the sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet which captured an estimated $55.7M over the Friday-to-Sunday period and a giant $84.5M across the five-day span starting with Tuesday night pre-shows. Among all time films debuting over this holiday, the PG-rated pic ranks second for its five-day tally after 2013's Frozen ($93.6M) and fourth for its three-day take after Frozen ($67.4M), Toy Story 2 ($57.4M), and Moana ($56.6M).

Reviews were glowing with many critics feeling it was better than its predecessor, 2012's Wreck-it Ralph. That film opened to $49M over a non-holiday November frame and the new film's five-day start is running 49% ahead of the first pic after the same number of days. A strong marketing campaign connected with kids and families and the turnout was large over the long school holiday weekend. The A- CinemaScore was good, but a bit below past toons from Disney over this frame like Frozen and Coco which each earned an A+. 18 overseas markets opened to $41.5M putting the global debut at $126M. Two-thirds of the international marketplace is still to come with several key territories launching in the December-January corridor.

Moviegoers showed up in force for the boxing sequel Creed II which opened bigger than its predecessor with a strong $35.3M over three days and $55.8M over the five-day frame. Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone both returned for part two and the story introduced the son of Ivan Drago, the famed villain of 1985's Thanksgiving box office leader Rocky IV.

Compared to 2015's Creed which also had the same five-day launch over the turkey frame, the MGM sequel opened 33% bigger. The first film about Apollo's son debuted to $42.1M over its long holiday frame on its way to a $109.8M domestic final. Reviews for Creed II were terrific and paying audiences agreed as the PG-13 film earned a nice A grade from CinemaScore. The Friday-to-Sunday average was a potent $10,257 from 3,441 locations. The road ahead should lead to a final north of $125M.

Thanks to the many new and holdover hit films for everybody, the Thanksgiving weekend Top 10 broke the all-time record with a stunning $202.7M beating the old high of $198.6M from 2012 when the final Twilight movie, Skyfall and Lincoln led the frame. Moviegoing was alive and well this weekend plus millions of people saw trailers to upcoming winter films which could keep momentum going as we enter the final month of 2018.

Some big holdover brands followed playing to broad audiences. With a great hold was the Christmas-themed toon The Grinch which took in an estimated $30.2M, down just 22%, landing Universal at $180.4M overall.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald fell 52% in its sophomore session to an estimated $29.7M putting Warner Bros. at $117.1M after ten full days. The first Beasts had the same calendar and declined by only 39% on the second round which was also Thanksgiving. The cume on the new installment is running 25% behind the pace of its predecessor. A final domestic of $165-170M seems likely.

The Fox hit Bohemian Rhapsody was a crowdpleaser over the holiday frame and dipped by only 14% to an estimated $13.9M propelling the domestic cume to $152M. Global is now a remarkable $472.2M and will smash the half-billion mark in the coming days. Audiences have also been liking the comedy Instant Family which had a slide of just 14% as well to an estimated $12.5M in its second weekend giving Paramount $35.8M to date.

There was not much interest in yet another Robin Hood movie as Lionsgate witnessed an estimated $9.1M opening weekend over three days and a $14.2M launch over five days. The R-rated take starring Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx averaged a mild $3,228 over three days from 2,827 locations and does not look to have much of a future. Reviews were terrible and audience scores were weak. The five-day holiday opening at today's prices even fell well below the $25.6M debut of Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves from 1991 when the average movie ticket price was only $4.21.

Fox's action thriller Widows dropped 36% in its second weekend to an estimated $8M pushing the cume to a decent $25.6M. The acclaimed drama Green Book expanded nationwide and saw respectable results with an estimated $5.4M from 1,063 locations for a $5,120 average. Universal has collected $7.8M to date. Rounding out the top ten in its eighth weekend of play was A Star is Born with an estimated $3M, off 30%, giving Warner Bros. a robust $191M overall.

Getting off to a sensational start in its platform debut was the awards contender The Favourite which registered an estimated $420,000 from only four theaters in New York and Los Angeles for an eye-popping $105,000 average. Fox Searchlight expands into seven more markets next weekend and will gradually widen the critically acclaimed drama across the country. Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz star in the R-rated tale.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $202.7M which was up 14% from last year when Coco opened at number one with $50.8M; and up 19% from 2016 when Moana debuted in the top spot with $56.6M.


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# Title Nov 23 - 25 Nov 16 - 18 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Ralph Breaks the Internet $ 56,237,634 4,017 1 $ 14,000 $ 84,750,405 Disney
2 Creed II 35,574,710 3,441 1 10,338 56,007,007 MGM
3 The Grinch 30,392,220 38,587,130 -21.2 3,960 3 7,675 180,494,990 Universal
4 Fantastic Beasts: Grindelwald 29,375,498 62,163,104 -52.7 4,163 2 7,056 116,554,309 Warner Bros.
5 Bohemian Rhapsody 14,001,156 16,042,965 -12.7 2,927 4 4,783 152,158,106 Fox
6 Instant Family 12,310,708 14,504,315 -15.1 3,286 2 3,746 35,564,886 Paramount
7 Robin Hood 9,195,670 2,827 1 3,253 14,297,995 Lionsgate
8 Widows 8,231,373 12,361,307 -33.4 2,803 2 2,937 25,862,333 Fox
9 Green Book 5,501,520 320,429 1,063 2 5,175 7,860,501 Universal
10 A Star is Born 3,016,129 4,293,663 -29.8 1,202 8 2,509 191,003,172 Warner Bros.
11 The Nutcracker 2,785,368 4,772,950 -41.6 1,757 4 1,585 49,186,550 Disney
12 Boy Erased 1,159,590 1,323,832 -12.4 672 4 1,726 4,541,652 Focus
13 Overlord 1,112,065 3,790,251 -70.7 1,223 3 909 20,191,451 Paramount
14 Nobody's Fool 900,411 2,216,073 -59.4 608 4 1,481 30,509,584 Paramount
15 Venom 766,700 1,976,625 -61.2 585 8 1,311 211,697,763 Sony
16 The Front Runner 632,139 75,364 738.8 807 3 783 1,072,662 Sony
17 Can You Ever Forgive Me? 598,142 893,180 -33.0 426 6 1,404 6,029,184 Fox Searchlight
18 Free Solo 448,057 467,510 -4.2 146 9 3,069 9,650,000 NatGeo
19 The Favourite 422,410 4 1 105,603 422,410 Fox Searchlight
20 Smallfoot 367,580 423,604 -13.2 301 9 1,221 81,935,912 Warner Bros.
Top 5 $ 165,581,218 $ 143,658,821 15.3
Top 10 203,836,618 161,233,374 26.4
Top 20 213,029,080 169,414,538 25.7
Top 20 vs. 2017 213,029,080 186,269,066 14.4

Last Updated: November 25, 2018 at 2:30PM ET

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