‘Aquaman’ became the latest movie to make over $20 million on Christmas day, following three ‘Star Wars’ films– ‘The Force Awakens’, ‘Rogue One’, and ‘The Last Jedi’– ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Avatar’. Earning $22M, it falls into sixth place behind these others. That brought its five-day domestic total to $101M, and when previews are added to that, it brings ‘Aquaman”s total to $105.7M. Worldwide, DC’s King of the Seas has splashed past the half-billion mark.
Pessimistically speaking, however, ‘Aquaman’ didn’t make as much in five days as ‘Justice League’ and that ended up being the lowest-grossing of all the DC Extended Universe movies. However, with its global take, it’s already made 75% of what ‘Justice League’ made altogether. And people seem to like it better, with its A- CinemaScore versus ‘JL”s B+. Also, overseas, ‘Aquaman’ has already made more than either ‘Man of Steel’ or ‘Wonder Woman’.
Just as with the weekend, Disney’s ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ was the second-best grossing movie on Christmas day, taking in an additional $11.5M. That brings its total to $50.2M. That’s more than double what last year’s ‘The Greatest Showman’ made in the same span. It’s hoped that like that and other hit musicals, ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ will have legs and will continue to draw audiences over the coming weeks. But the fact that this is also a family movie could change the rules, especially since, as stated this weekend, it’s not clicking with its target audience– kids. On the upside, their moms love it.
Meanwhile, ‘Bumblebee’ made $8.9M, bringing its total to $34.2M. It is already being predicted that this ‘Transformers’ spin-off will top out at $120M during its domestic theatrical run.
One newcomer slipped into the Top Five, Sony’s Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy ‘Holmes & Watson’, which earned $6.4M on Christmas, which was its opening day, placing it at #4 for the day. This one is a turd, though. Audiences gave it a D+ CinemaScore and a ½ star PostTrak. Sony did not screen it for critics in advance, so it doesn’t have a Rotten Tomatoes score, but if audiences, who are always more positive than critics, hated it, this may wind up with a rare 0% rating.
Rumor has it, Sony tried to get Netflix to buy ‘Holmes & Watson’ and they didn’t want it. And this is a service that has an exclusive development deal with Adam Sandler!
All in all, these showings may spell bad news for ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’. This was last weekend’s #1 movie. It only made $5.6M on Christmas day, which when added to the weekend’s $16.6M and the $3.3M it made on Christmas Eve, brings it to $25.5M for the five-day period and $73.3M total. This movie got excellent reviews and audiences loved it, but with such stiff competition, it’s getting crowded out.
But the real disaster of the weekend remains ‘Welcome to Marwen’. It made $1.3M on Christmas day bringing its grand total to $4.1M. While its budget was initially reported to be $39M, it is now rumored that it was more like $40-$50M making its performance even more painful.
Since New Year’s Eve is on Monday, next weekend may draw heavier crowds than typical for a holiday weekend. But there’s nothing opening, so it’ll be a face-off between the current champs. Will ‘Aquaman”s tepid reviews drag it down? Will the excellent buzz earned by ‘Bumblebee’ drive more people to see it? Check to see.
Source: Deadline
