Weekend Box Office (December 7 - 9, 2018)
THIS WEEKEND For the third straight year, Disney ruled the post-Thanksgiving box office for three consecutive weekends with its latest toon hit. This time it was with Ralph Breaks the Internet which declined by 37% to an estimated $16.1M which was good enough for the top spot since studios chose not to open up any major new films. The Mouse House saw its cume climb to $140.9M.
Last year the studio had Coco and in 2016 it was Moana. All three blockbusters opened over turkey weekend and then remained in first place over the following two sessions thanks in part to little competition in the early December corridor which studios often avoid. Both of those past two films saw a new Star Wars movie opening on the fourth weekend, but that will not be the case this year. Coco and Moana did identical $18.5M grosses on the third frame while Ralph is lagging a bit behind.
Enjoying a minor 15% decline in its fifth weekend was the hit Christmas film The Grinch which took in an estimated $15.2M. Universal has been enjoying a terrific run and now sits at $223.5M with the holidays still to come. The new Grinch looks set to surpass the $260M final of Jim Carrey's How The Grinch Stole Christmas, though ticket prices have shot up significantly since 2000 when that hit came out.
A pair of sequels followed. Creed II took in an estimated $10.3M this weekend dropping 38%. MGM has banked $96.5M so far and should join the century club by Friday. Warner Bros. saw its franchise tentpole Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald fall 40% to an estimated $6.8M pushing the domestic figure to $145.2M. Overseas markets have contributed $423.3M putting the global take at $568.5M.
Spending its sixth consecutive weekend in the top five, Fox's Bohemian Rhapsody continued to pull in the crowds with an estimated $6M, off 25%, pushing the domestic haul to an incredible $173.6M. Sales around the world are still on fire with the $600M global mark about to be crushed. International markets have now kicked in $423M with solid holds putting the worldwide sum at $596.6M. Look for the $700M mark to be surpassed too as this film is playing like a super hero movie. Paramount collected an estimated $5.6M for its comedy Instant Family, down 22%, with $54.2M to date.
With hardly any expansion, the awards contender Green Book saw no drop from last weekend grossing another estimate of $3.9M this weekend boosting Universal's sum to $20M with plenty more to come over the holidays. On Thursday it scored an impressive five Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture. Robin Hood followed with an estimated $3.6M, down 25%, for $27.3M thus far for Lionsgate.
Tumbling 50% in its second frame was the horror title The Possession of Hannah Grace with an estimated $3.2M with $11.5M overall for Sony. Fox rounded out the top ten with Widows which slipped 30% to an estimated $3.1M putting the total at $38.2M.
Universal gave Steven Spielberg's Oscar champ Schindler's List a theatrical re-release for its 25th anniversary but audiences did not come out. Grossing an estimated $551,000 from 1,029 locations, the acclaimed hit averaged only $535 per theater. Focus enjoyed a strong debut for its awards hopeful Mary Queen of Scots which bowed to an estimated $200,000 from only four runs in New York and Los Angeles for a powerful $50,000 average. It expands to about 70 theaters next weekend and rolls out wider over the weeks ahead. Expanding well in its third round was Fox Searchlight's The Favourite with an estimated $1.4M from 91 sites for a solid $15,714 average and $3.5M total to date.
In international action, Warner Bros. launched its comic book tentpole Aquaman in China two weeks before its U.S. release and witnessed monster success. The studio captured an estimated $93.6M this weekend making it the largest debut in company history by far for Warners and the fourth biggest for any foreign film there this entire year. In US dollars, it was 64% bigger than Batman v Superman, 81% larger than Justice League, and 68% bigger than Thor: Ragnarok. Early scores from paying audiences are very high. It was an amazing start for this particular character and more key markets will open next weekend before North America kicks off on December 21. Breaking at least $800M worldwide seems likely for Aquaman.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $73.8M which was up 5% from last year when Coco stayed at number one with $18.5M; and up 3% from 2016 when Moana remained in the top spot with $18.5M.
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| # | Title | Dec 7 - 9 | Nov 30 - Dec 2 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | Distributor |
| 1 | Ralph Breaks the Internet | $ 16,253,831 | $ 25,566,945 | -36.4 | 3,795 | 3 | $ 4,283 | $ 140,971,716 | Disney |
| 2 | The Grinch | 15,039,050 | 17,926,785 | -16.1 | 3,841 | 5 | 3,915 | 223,324,225 | Universal |
| 3 | Creed II | 9,975,167 | 16,639,048 | -40.0 | 3,752 | 3 | 2,659 | 96,124,564 | MGM |
| 4 | Fantastic Beasts: Grindelwald | 6,953,846 | 11,361,556 | -38.8 | 3,451 | 4 | 2,015 | 145,356,370 | Warner Bros. |
| 5 | Bohemian Rhapsody | 6,141,666 | 8,008,587 | -23.3 | 2,953 | 6 | 2,080 | 173,710,836 | Fox |
| 6 | Instant Family | 5,756,311 | 7,170,076 | -19.7 | 3,426 | 4 | 1,680 | 54,317,053 | Paramount |
| 7 | Green Book | 3,905,030 | 3,931,220 | -0.7 | 1,181 | 4 | 3,307 | 19,946,941 | Universal |
| 8 | Robin Hood | 3,531,994 | 4,781,624 | -26.1 | 2,573 | 3 | 1,373 | 27,236,187 | Lionsgate |
| 9 | The Possession of Hannah Grace | 3,170,546 | 6,401,744 | -50.5 | 2,298 | 2 | 1,380 | 11,502,095 | Sony |
| 10 | Widows | 3,150,274 | 4,403,153 | -28.5 | 2,161 | 4 | 1,458 | 38,206,080 | Fox |
| 11 | A Star is Born | 2,454,068 | 1,829,567 | 34.1 | 1,631 | 10 | 1,505 | 197,042,665 | Warner Bros. |
| 12 | The Favourite | 1,496,143 | 1,072,282 | 39.5 | 91 | 3 | 16,441 | 3,534,789 | Fox Searchlight |
| 13 | The Nutcracker | 1,101,376 | 1,343,556 | -18.0 | 1,170 | 6 | 941 | 52,681,570 | Disney |
| 14 | Schindler's List (25th anniv) | 566,760 | 1,029 | 1 | 551 | 566,760 | Universal | ||
| 15 | Boy Erased | 421,940 | 604,060 | -30.1 | 622 | 6 | 678 | 6,335,167 | Focus |
| 16 | Kedarnath | 407,118 | 113 | 1 | 3,603 | 407,118 | Pack Your Bags | ||
| 17 | At Eternity's Gate | 319,925 | 186,249 | 71.8 | 174 | 4 | 1,839 | 1,081,140 | CBS |
| 18 | Venom | 307,314 | 377,396 | -18.6 | 388 | 10 | 792 | 212,718,480 | Sony |
| 19 | Free Solo | 259,630 | 288,035 | -9.9 | 182 | 11 | 1,427 | 10,517,581 | NatGeo |
| 20 | Nobody's Fool | 258,179 | 382,417 | -32.5 | 368 | 6 | 702 | 31,472,953 | Paramount |
| Top 5 | $ 54,363,560 | $ 79,502,921 | -31.6 | ||||||
| Top 10 | 73,877,715 | 106,190,738 | -30.4 | ||||||
| Top 20 | 81,470,168 | 115,602,054 | -29.5 | ||||||
| Top 20 vs. 2017 | 81,470,168 | 80,617,329 | 1.1 |
This column is updated three times each week: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday (post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of the author.
Last Updated: December 9, 2018 at 1:10PM ET
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