Weekend Wrap-Up
Creed and Dinosaur Strong at Thanksgiving Box Office
By John Hamann
November 29, 2015
The Peanuts Movie is fifth, and despite The Good Dinosaur, it also holds well this weekend. The animated throwback earned $9.7 million over three-days this weekend, dropping 27% - which is solid given the competition. It crossed the $100 million mark on Monday, its 18th day, one day longer than it took The Smurfs. The $100 million Fox/Blue Sky production has now earned $116.8 million stateside, and only $10 million overseas but from a handful of small markets. It opens in Japan next week, and the markets get bigger and bigger in the lead-up to Christmas.
The Night Before is sixth, as it was hoping to build on last weekend’s subdued opening weekend figure of $9.9 million. With a great Cinemascore (A-), and decent reviews, it was possible that the Seth Rogen release might just increase on what it did last weekend. Unfortunately, that was not the case, as the Christmas comedy earned $8.2 million and fell 17%. The Sony release was made for only $25 million, and it has a gross-to-date of $24.1 million, so it’s going to need a little help overseas. It opened in a few overseas markets this weekend and heads to Europe next weekend, so it could still be okay.
The Secret In Their Eyes did not have a great second weekend. It earned $4.5 million and dropped 32%. The STX release has now earned $14 million. Going the other way is Spotlight, the sure-to-be-Oscar nominated newspaper movie. Spotlight earned $4.5 million, up a significant 27% compared to last weekend. Open Road added about 300 theaters for Thanksgiving weekend, and Spotlight now has a domestic gross of $12.3 million.
Brooklyn is another film moving up this weekend, as the Saoirse Ronan film moved from 111 screens last weekend to 845 this weekend. With venue increase, Brooklyn moved from $1.6 million last weekend to $3.8 million this weekend, for an increase of 230%. It has a gross to date of $7.3 million. Moving the other way is The Martian, which earned $3.3 million in its ninth weekend. It now has a domestic gross of $218.6 million and an overseas gross beyond $325 million.
That means that new release Victor Frankenstein, starring Professor X and Harry Potter, failed to make the top ten. It finished 12th and earned only $2.4 million. Since opening Wednesday, it has earned a paltry $3.4 million. The budget is rumored to be at $40 million, so overseas patrons is going to have to love this one. Unfortunately, reviews were awful and the Cinemascore was a dreadful C.
Overall this weekend, the Thanksgiving box office was decent, but in no way record-breaking. The top 12 films this weekend took in $173.1 million, which was a leg up over last year, when Mockingjay Part 1 led the 12 to $155 million. The year earlier, though, with Catching Fire on top, the top 12 earned a hot $194.6 million.
Next weekend brings Krampus into wide release and a film called The Letters in a mid-tier release. There are only two true wide releases prior to Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens – Krampus and In the Heart of the Sea in the following frame.
|
Top Ten for Weekend of November 27-29, 2015 (Three-Day)
|
Rank |
Film |
Distributor |
Estimated Gross (in millions) |
Weekly Change |
Running Total (in millions) |
|
1
|
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
|
Lionsgate
|
51.6
|
-50%
|
198.3
|
|
2
|
The Good Dinosaur
|
Walt Disney
|
39.2
|
New
|
55.6
|
|
3
|
Creed
|
Warner Bros.
|
30.1
|
New
|
42.6
|
|
4
|
Spectre
|
Sony
|
12.8
|
-15%
|
176.1
|
|
5
|
The Peanuts Movie
|
20th Century Fox
|
9.7
|
-27%
|
116.8
|
|
6
|
The Night Before
|
Sony
|
8.2
|
-17%
|
24.1
|
|
7
|
The Secret in Their Eyes
|
STX Entertainment
|
4.5
|
-32%
|
14.0
|
|
8
|
Spotlight
|
Open Road
|
4.5
|
+27%
|
12.3
|
|
9
|
Brooklyn
|
Fox Searchlight
|
3.8
|
+230%
|
7.3
|
|
10
|
The Martian
|
20th Century Fox
|
3.3
|
-13%
|
218.6
|
|
11
|
Love the Coopers
|
Lionsgate
|
3.1
|
-26%
|
20.5
|
|
12
|
Victor Frankenstein
|
20th Century Fox
|
2.4
|
New
|
3.4
|
Continued:
1
2
3
4
|
|
|
|
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