There is one thing about this weekend’s box office that movie goers made clear.  There is a movie viewers wanted to see and there was a movie people did not want to see.  Everything else was kinda blah in the middle.

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Kicking us off in the #1 spot was the predictable Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse.  Spider-verse brought in a commanding $35.4 million.  This is the 13th week a Marvel based film has held the #1 spot.  Pretty sure it will also be the last.  It will hold strong and do well over the holidays behind exceptional word of mouth, but there is about to be a whole lot more stiff competition.

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Coming in a distant second was Clint Eastwood’s latest film The Mule.  Eastwood’s latest film brought in $17.2 million.  This, too, may do well over the long haul.  It is one of the few adult films playing, and with the name Eastwood attached, look for award show nominations to follow.

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In third place, The Grinch continues to hold strong as expected.  Now in its 6th week of release, it managed to still bring in just shy of $11.6 million.  Its domestic total sits just shy of $240 million.

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In fourth place in this very kid friendly top 5 is Ralph Breaks the Internet.  Ralph managed $9.5 million in its fourth week of release.  It has only managed $154 million to this point, but as this top 5 shows it has been a very crowded few weeks for kids movies and it is far from over.

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Finally, in the five hole we have the new release movie goers were very much NOT interested in seeing.  The Peter Jackson produced Mortal Engines bombed badly, only managing to bring in a measly $7.5 million.  Cinemascore gave the movie a B- but Rottentomatoes has it at a horrible 28% for critics and 61% with audiences.  It appears this movie will be amongst the worst bombs of the year.

NEXT WEEK

We enter the holiday weekend with two of the three biggest movies of the month, with the third movie dropping five days later.  The two biggest titles are the mega-blockbuster, super hyped Aquaman as well as the quieter yet much more critically hyped Bumblebee.  While it will be fun watching these two power houses clash for #1, it is also a total shame.  These two movies should have much larger box offices as all they will do is cannibalize each other.  Aquaman is the more hyped of the two, the larger, flashier movie, but Bumblebee is quietly amassing all sorts of praise for its more genuine Transformers roots and its heart.

Of course then you have the counter programming of Second Act starring Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Treat Williams, and Milo Ventimiglia.  Even this may be overshadowed by the brawny Jason Mamoa.  You also have Welcome To Marwen starring Steve Carell.