This past weekend’s box office was fairly predictable as far as what the movies brought in. The interesting points came with what some movies didn’t do. All three new films managed to finish in the top 5, but one movie dominated the box office.
As expected, The Grinch took over the box office as most family films do. The Grinch brought in a cool $66 million over the weekend. I am a bit surprised a kids Christmas movie would release this far out, but given the competition in December, it was probably a smart move. Reviews are pretty mixed on its quality. Cinemascore audiences gave it an A, but both critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes were in the mid-50s and 60s respectively. I am not sure what kind of legs this movie will have, especially given this is the umpteenth remake.
Holding quite strong in distant second place is Bohemian Rhapsody, bringing in $30.8 million. What is most impressive about this number is that it only dropped 39% in its second week, not too shabby. Word of mouth is split. IF you want behind the scenes dirt and info on Freddy’s life and doings, it falls flat. If all you want is a picture that covers the major career points of Queen and hear their music, marks go way up.
In third place is another new film, Overlord. This horror film is being received well, but it appears to only be by a small crowd. Overlord could only manage $10.1 million in its opening week. A horror set during the D-Day invasion, its managed a B from Cinemascore and an average review of critics and fans on Rotten Tomatoes of approximately 80, with critics scores slightly leading the fan scores.
In fourth surprisingly is The Nutcracker and the Four Realms with $9.5 million. Dropping 53% in your second week is a solid number. The problem is that its opening numbers were not that good, so even a small drop hurts. I see this one dropping fast from here.
A vet and a noob went head to head and the noob squeaked out the win. The Girl in the Spider’s Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story $8.010 million. Audiences seem to have liked the movie as Cinemascore gives it a B; However, Rotten tomatoes scores for both critics and fans score it at 50 and below.
Perhaps the bigger story is that while it finished in 6th place, A Star Is Born finished at $8.005 million only dropping 27% despite losing 583 screens.
(Revised numbers came in just before posting. A Star Is Born retook the #5 slot with $8.105 million while Girl was dropped to sixth with $7.8 million)
NEXT WEEK
Let’s face it. Next week everybody will take a huge drop as all the money will be going to one place – Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Look for this one to have a large box office, but don’t over do it. Early word of mouth on this one is not good. Rotten Tomatoes has critics giving this one a 57%. Normally critics are not fond of fan movies or popular movies such as this, but this is by far the lowest score RT has ever given a Potter film. The previous lows were in the upper 70%.
Other than that, we have Instant Family and Widows. Look for both of these to be top 5, but much further down the chart from 1st place. Also look for A Star Is Born to remain top 5.
