Disney’s latest animated entry, ‘Moana’ swept the Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend, taking in $54.7 million over three days and $80.4M over five. While that places ‘Moana’ in the #1 spot, it slightly trails ‘Frozen’ which opened on the same weekend in 2013 and took in a record-setting $93.6M. But ‘Moana’ can claim one victory over Anna and Elsa. This was Disney’s highest Wednesday opening for an animated movie, with $15.7M topping ‘Frozen”s $15.1M.
This movie should continue to do well, earning a glowing “A” CinemaScore with a whopping 40% saying it was far better than they were expecting. It’s also got an amazing 98% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ took in an additional $44.6M over three days and $65.3M over five to land at #2, while ‘Doctor Strange’ continues to do well, taking in an additional $13.5M/$19M to finish at #3. It should be noted that ‘Strange’ earlier lost most of its large format screens to ‘Fantastic Beasts’, and likewise, the second movie gave up some of those same screens to ‘Moana’ which definitely impacts the final grosses.
Here is the Top Five:
- Moana (Disney) – $54.7M/3-Day, $80.4M/5-Day
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Warner Brothers) – $44.6M/$65.3M
- Doctor Strange (Disney/Marvel Studios) – $13.5M/$19M
- Allied (Paramount) – $12.6M/$16.9M
- Arrival (Paramount) – $11.2M/$15.5M
It should be noted that ‘Arrival’ is still hanging in there in its third week, as word appears to be spreading that this is one worth checking out. Its three-day cumulative is down just 7% from last weekend. It’s currently sitting pretty with a 93% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘Allied’ starring Brad Pitt is off to a weak start, with just $16.9M over five days, on a budget of $85M, appealing mostly to men. It’s only managed a “B” CinemaScore and a fairly lousy 62% on Rotten Tomatoes. Paramount was looking to land Pitt an Academy Award nomination for this movie (if he were to win, it would be his first Oscar for acting), but that looks unlikely now. Most buzz surrounding Pitt these days centers on his impending divorce, but that type of tabloid gossip doesn’t play well with the older male demographic.
Lower on the list, ‘Bad Santa 2’ is just the latest comedy sequel that probably should not have even been made. It’s $8.5 opening is only slightly more than half of that of the first one.
Meanwhile, the Warren Beatty-directed ‘Rules Don’t Apply”s $1.5M opening is one of the worst ever for a major studio film, lower than this spring’s low budget sci fi flop ‘Morgan’ with its $2M debut and only slightly higher than ‘Jem and the Holograms” $1.38M.
NOTHING is opening next weekend, so don’t expect many shakeups as we head into December.
Source: Deadline
