Weekend Wrap-Up
by Tim Briody
December 10, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The weekend before Star Wars is here and it brings a notable expansion and one un-notable wide release. Just stay with us. I promise things get better real soon.
Coco is again the #1 film in the land, as the Pixar film continues to roll along without much in the way of new releases. The Pixar production adds $18.3 million for the weekend, giving it $135.8 million after three weekends in theaters. Coco’s weekend drop was 34%, which shows that it’s mirroring last year’s Moana, at a slightly lower degree (Moana also dipped 34% in it’s third weekend, and had $144 million to this point, and finished with $248.7 million total.) Next weekend is pretty crucial, as once it’s over that hump, the holiday box office money train begins to pick up steam, giving Coco a chance to become a strong option over Christmas and New Year’s.
Coco finally does see some direct competition next weekend, in the form of Ferdinand. Just kidding, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is more likely to affect Coco box office than that terrible looking John Cena-voiced animated film will (and I say that as BOP’s resident John Cena apologist). Despite being nearly $65 million away, I feel safe in saying that Coco is a lock for $200 million, which still makes it one of Pixar’s lower performing films, but at least that’s ahead of the Cars sequels.
Justice League holds in second place but it drops another 42% to $9.5 million giving it $212 million after four weekends. So uh, six months ago, Wonder Woman made $412 million. Just saying. Already losing screens (and a prime candidate to give them up to Star Wars next weekend), Justice League is probably set to be the biggest loser among the films already in theaters once Star Wars moves in, which makes it less likely to get the holiday bump. $250 million is still in sight, anything beyond that is asking for it.
Wonder, the best story of the fall, holds in third place with $8.4 million and $100.2 million after four weekends, making it the 27th $100 million film of 2017. Least likely $100 million film of the year: Wonder, Get Out, Baby Driver or Annabelle: Creation? As another aside, I’m glad in the era of mega box office openings, $100 million is still a solid benchmark, whether as an opening weekend or domestic total.
Fourth place goes to the big expansion of the weekend, James Franco’s The Disaster Artist. An adaptation of a book about the making of the cult classic The Room, the movie expanded to 840 theaters and earned $6.4 million, giving it $8 million in the bank after a successful NY/LA release last weekend. While movies about movies are often too inside baseball for most moviegoers, The Disaster Artist had some decent buzz for Franco’s all-in performance as Tommy Wiseau (but he’s a dark horse Oscar candidate in a fairly deep year; Adapted Screenplay is very likely though), and from a small but devoted contingent of fans(?) of The Room. It also earned 94% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, so it definitely got Hi Marks from critics. It does have a tough box office road ahead of it, as A24 generally plays it safe with expansions.
Thor: Ragnarok sits smugly in fifth, still laughing at Justice League as it takes in $6.2 million, down 36% from last week, crossing the $300 million mark in the process. The MCU dunking on the DCEU just doesn’t ever get old.
The intertwining fates of Daddy’s Home 2 and Murder on the Orient Express continue again with the films in sixth and seventh place respectively, as Daddy’s Home 2 ($6 million, down 21%) once again finishes the weekend ahead of Murder on the Orient Express ($5.1 million, down 25%), but still can’t catch its total as Murder stands at $92.7 million while Daddy’s Home 2 is at $91.1 million after five weekends in theaters. Both should cross $100 million (on the same day of course) around Christmas.
The Star continues to hang on, taking eighth place with $3.6 million, down just 12% from last weekend, giving it $32.2 million in four weekends. I’m not too surprised by this as we get closer to the holidays, but it’s just about to be swept out of theaters thanks to the new releases coming in the next two weeks. Still, it only cost Sony $20 million so it’s a definite win.
A24’s other big awards film, Lady Bird, is in ninth with $3.5 million, down 18% from last weekend, and giving it $22.3 million to date. Two more weekends or so and it should surpass Moonlight ($27.8 million) as A24’s most successful film ever. Greta Gerwig’s major awards player (expect Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay nominations) is hoping to hang on to box office relevancy for a little while longer, where it could end up with as much as $50 million if everything breaks right. I’d also expect a rerelease in January should all the big nominations come through.
Way down in tenth place we have the weekend’s only new release, the old people comedy Just Getting Started, starring Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones and Rene Russo. With just $3.1 million on the weekend, Just Getting Started is actually a non-starter and will be quickly forgotten and unable to take advantage of the holiday movie season with this start. This was the final theatrical release by Broad Green Pictures, a distribution company we all forgot existed, mostly because they didn’t have any big hits.
The top 12 films earned $75.9 million this weekend, once again way down from last year’s $101.4 million, when Moana again led the box office with $24 million and the lone opener, Office Christmas Party, took in $23 million.
Coming next weekend we have, uh, *checks notes* The Star Wars. I’m not sure what that is, but we’ll report about it’s box office here nonetheless.