Weekend Box Office (December 1 - 3, 2017)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND It was a ho-hum session at the North American box office as moviegoers feasted on post-Thanksgiving leftovers with studios not releasing any major new titles. Disney and Pixar topped the charts once again with their animated hit Coco which grossed an estimated $26.1M in its second round dropping by a reasonable 49% from its holiday weekend launch. After 12 full days of play, the Mexican tale has banked a solid $108.7M and may be only halfway to its final destination through the holidays.

A year ago, Disney also was number one with Moana with a slightly better weekend gross of $28.3M, though with a similar dip of 50%. Coco, another well-liked animated hit, may follow a similar path in the weeks ahead, although it will have to face a bigger Star Wars movie in The Last Jedi than last December's Rogue One. A big $69M overseas weekend helped push the latest Pixar story to $280M worldwide.

It was another troubling fall for the super hero epic Justice League which dropped 60% in its third weekend to an estimated $16.6M suffering the worst decline of any movie in the top ten. The domestic total to date is now $197.3M which is 34% behind last year's Batman v Superman at the same point in the run. Warner Bros. still looks on track to end near the $240M mark which would be the lowest level in the five-film DC Extended Universe. International markets are holding better and global is now $567.4M on its way to the $700M neighborhood.

Lionsgate saw its uplifting family drama Wonder stay in third for a third weekend with an estimated $12.5M. The Julia Roberts hit was down a reasonable 45% and has put its cume at an impressive $88M with much of the holiday season still ahead. Thor: Ragnarok dropped 43% to an estimated $9.7M pushing Disney's domestic tally to $291.4M. Global now stands at $816.4M.

The comedy sequel Daddy's Home 2 grossed an estimated $7.5M, off 43%, and has brought in $82.8M for Paramount. Fox's mystery hit Murder on the Orient Express fell 49% to an estimated $6.7M and has banked $84.8M to date.

Fresh from its win this past week for Best Picture and Best Actress from the New York Film Critics Circle, plus Saoirse Ronan's hosting of Saturday Night Live, the indie hit Lady Bird widened again and grossed an estimated $4.5M climbing up 12% from last weekend. A24 has collected $17.1M so far and has much more to go as awards season gets heated.

The acclaimed arthouse hit Three Billboards expanded into more markets again and followed closely with an estimated $4.5M as well lifting the sum to $13.7M for Fox Searchlight.

The Biblical toon The Star took in an estimated $4M, down only 42%, and has put Sony at $27.3M thus far. STX saw its raunchy comedy sequel A Bad Moms Christmas dip only 29% - by far the smallest drop in the top ten for films not expanding. With an estimated $3.5M this weekend, the overall sum is now $64.8M.

With the arrival of December comes more critically acclaimed films getting into the Oscar race with limited debuts and this weekend saw fantastic results for two new entries. James Franco's The Disaster Artist bowed to an estimated $1.2M from 19 theaters in a dozen different markets for a stellar $64,263 average for A24. Meanwhile in only two locations, Guillermo del Toro's latest creation The Shape of Water opened to an estimated $167,000 for a scorching $83,500 average. Both expand in the weeks ahead.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $95.6M which was up 14% from last year when Moana stayed at number one with $28.3M; and up 10% from 2015 when Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 remained in the top spot with $18.9M.

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Last Updated: December 3, 2017 at 12:10PM ET

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