Everything is higher: Disney’s Moana 2 is settling its 5-day at $225.2M, while Universal’s Wicked is coming in at $118.2M, and Paramount’s Gladiator II at $44.3M.
3-day for Moana 2 is $139.7M after a $34.7M Sunday, -31% from Saturday. For a project that was originally destined to be on Disney+, and was flipped to theatrical, that’s pretty amazing. The mind wonders how much cash Disney could have raked in had they put Hocus Pocus 2 into theaters at the time of its premiere instead of the service.
“Where the hell did that $175M projection come from?” exclaimed one non-Disney rival executive this morning, “I would get fired if I forecast that!”. While rivals saw a clear path to $200M before Black Friday for Moana 2, Disney didn’t want to over project and be in a situation where grosses were getting walked back. It’s not a matter of being careful: Too often on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, everyone sees numbers a certain way, and then Black Friday and Saturday come along and can change your fate by 180 degrees. The weekend before, estimates were too high for Wicked at $120M on Friday before settling at a $112.5M. The running total for Wicked, which is the highest grossing movie stateside based on a Broadway musical, is $263.1M after a $20.1M Sunday, -31% from Saturday’s $29.1M. Second weekend on the Jon M. Chu directed movie is $81.1M, -28%.
Next weekend is an interesting one, typically a downer weekend whereby all grosses can drop as much as -44% to -50% off the 3-day Black Friday weekend. The record first weekend of December goes to 2018 which saw all movies tally $119.7M per Box Office Mojo. That was -44% from the previous Black Friday 3-day frame of $216.4M. Comscore reported yesterday AM a total marketplace 3-day of $271M and a 5-day of $420M. Those figures are obviously higher from what we’re seeing this AM.
There is actually a wide release that’s daring to open this coming weekend and that’s Briarcliff Entertainment’s Frank Grillo horror movie, Werewolves.
1. Moana 2 (Dis) 4200 theaters, Wed $57.5M Thu $28M Fri $54.5M Sat $50.5M Sun $30.5M 3-day $135.5M 5-day $221M/Wk 1
2.Wicked (Uni) 3,888 theaters, Wed $20.4M Thu $17M Fri $32M Sat $29.4M Sun $18.6M 3-day $80M (-29%), 5-day $117.5M/Total $262.4M/Wk 2
3.Gladiator 2 (Par) 3,580 theaters, Wed $6.6M Thu $6.7M Fri $12.4M Sat $11.7M Sun $6.6M 3-day $30.7M (-44%), 5-day $44M, Total $111.2M/Wk 2
4. Red One (AMZ MGM) 3432 (-600) theaters, Wed $2.8M Thu $3M Fri $4.8M Sat $4.8M Sun $3.1M 3-day $12.896M (-2%), 5-day $18.7M, Total $76M/Wk 3
Global running total on the Johnson-Chris Evans Christmas action movie is now $148.7M.
5. Best Christmas Pageant Ever (LG) 1,779 (-500) theaters, Wed $840K Thu $740K Fri $1.35M Sat $1.15M Sun $770K 3-day $3.27M (+2%) 5-day $4.85M Total $32M/Wk 4
6. Bonhoeffer… (Angel) 1,800 (-100) theaters, Wed $500K Thu $540K Fri $918K Sat $825K Sun $660K 3-day $2.4M (-60%) 5-day $3.44M Total $9.7M/Wk 2
7. Venom: The Last Dance (Sony) 1,716 theaters, Wed $500K Thu $486K Fri $815K Sat $905K Sun $480 K 3-day $2.2M (-45%) 5-day $3.1M Total $137.8M/Wk 6
8. Heretic (A24) 660 (-962) theaters, Wed $278K Thu $292K Fri $338K Sat $359K Sun $258K 3-day $956K (-55%) 5-day $1.5M Total $26.8M/Wk 4
9. The Wild Robot (Uni) 935 theaters Wed $180K Thu $180K Fri $260K Sat $250K Sun $160K 3-day $670K (-68%) 5-day $1M Total $142.4M/Wk 10
10.) A Real Pain (SL) 505 theaters Wed $115K Thu $120K Fri $236K Sat $253K Sun 3-day $665K (-38%) 5-day $900K Total $6.1M/Wk 5