Box office: ‘Twas a Christmas weekend full of surprises, especially for ‘Aquaman’ and ‘The Color Purple’
Christmas weekend at the box office was looking potentially disastrous for some movies, with no fewer than nine wide releases over the extended four-day period. Turns out that some movies did far better than others, and Warner Bros. had an especially good weekend. Read on for the weekend box office report.
Considering that 2018’s “Aquaman,” starring Jason Momoa, grossed $1.1 billion worldwide after an opening weekend of $67.9 million in 4,125 theaters, there were hopes that its sequel “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” might be one of the weekend’s big movies.
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It was indeed the number-one movie of the weekend, but with lousy advance tracking and poor reviews, expectations were lowered considerably, and it failed even to achieve those. “The Lost Kingdom” ended up making just $4.5 million in Thursday previews and $27.7 million over the three-day weekend in 3,706 theaters – only slightly better than “Blue Beetle” a few months back. It ended up with an estimated $38.3 million including Christmas Day, which was on the lower side of expectations.
Overseas, audiences were much more forgiving, with China helping to boost the international box office with a $33.7 million four-day opening in that country, bringing the film to an overseas total of $94.9 million and a global opening of $133.2 million.
Warner’s musical “Wonka,” starring Timothée Chalamet — like Momoa, a recent “Saturday Night Live” host with a holiday movie — dropped to second place for the weekend with $18 million (down 53%), but counting Christmas Day, that added up to $28.4 million in four days for a domestic take of $85.9 million since opening last weekend. It’s killing overseas with $177.6 million so far, $39.1 million of that from the UK, for a global total of $263.5 million through Monday.
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This is where things get very, very interesting, because Warner Bros. had a third movie in theaters on Christmas Day: “The Color Purple,” based on Alice Walker‘s prize-winning bestseller that had already been adapted into an Oscar-nominated Steven Spielberg movie and a hit Tony-winning Broadway musical. Directed by Blitz Bazawule (Beyoncé‘s “Black is King”) and starring Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks from two different Broadway stagings of the musical, as well as Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, and Halle Bailey, the movie opened on Monday in 3,152 theaters where it scored $18.1 million, making it the second-biggest Christmas Day opening ever after 2009’s “Sherlock Holmes.” With solid reviews, that sort of showing can only help the movie’s Oscar chances, and don’t be surprised if it ends up winning its first full weekend over the two movies above, or at least come very close.
Ahead of Christmas Day, Universal and Illumination Entertainment were claiming a third place finish with their latest animated family movie, “Migration,” featuring the voices of Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Awkwafina, and Keegan-Michael Key. It ended up with just $12.5 million over the three-day weekend and $17.8 million including Christmas Day, a far cry from past Illumination holiday hits like “Sing” and “Sing 2.” The good news for “Migration” is that it has little to no family/animation competition, other than a couple Pixar re-releases, until March’s “Kung Fu Panda 4.”
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Next up on the weekend docket was Sony’s rom-com “Anyone But You,” starring Sydney Sweeney from “Euphoria” and Glen Powell from “Top Gun: Maverick.” Released into 3,055 theaters, it was seen as one of the weekend’s underdogs, but it actually did okay with $6 million over the three-day weekend and an estimated $8 million including Christmas Day.
Sean Durkin‘s “The Iron Claw,” one of three sports dramas released this weekend, came in with solid reviews and raves for the performance by Zac Efron as the eldest of the wrestling Von Erich brothers. Playing in 2,774 theaters, it took in $1.2 million in Thursday previews, doubling that amount for its opening Friday. It ended up with $4.9 million over the three-day weekend and $6.8 million including Monday.
Of the two Bollywood films released on Thursday, the Telugu-language action flick “Salaar Part 1 – Ceasefire,” fared better, bringing in $2.5 million in Thursday previews – better than all but “Aquaman” – and then racking up $6.6 million through Christmas Day. That was enough for it to take fifth place over the three-day weekend and sixth once “The Color Purple” came into play.
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Another Christmas Day miracle was the release of George Clooney‘s sports drama “The Boys in the Boat” by Amazon MGM into 2,557 theaters, where it made $5.72 million ($1.7 million of that was from advance previews), enough for it to take eighth place over the four-day holiday weekend.
Also opening on Christmas Day was Michael Mann‘s racing drama “Ferrari” starring Adam Driver (“SNL” host number-three!) with $2.9 million in 2,330 theaters – $656k of that was from earlier previews – so we’ll have to see how that holds up through its first full weekend.
Now, let’s look at this weekend’s CinemaScores. “The Color Purple,” “Migration” and “The Boys in the Boat” all scored an “A.” “The Iron Claw” got an “A-.” “Anyone But you” received a “B+,” and “B’s” went to both “Aquaman” and “Ferrari.” Probably not a ton of surprises there, but it’s a good sign that the first four will continue to bring in business over this coming week.
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Of the limited releases opening in theaters this weekend, Andrew Haigh‘s “All of Us Strangers” did the best in its platform release by Searchlight Studios into six theaters in New York, L.A. and San Fran. It ended up making $118k over the three-day in four of those theaters (just New York and LA) and then $153k for the extended weekend.
Most players correctly predicted that “Aquaman” would be number-one with between $25 and $50 million in this past weekend’s box office prediction game with “Wonka” and “Migration” firmly in the leads for second and third place. Bearing in mind that Monday wasn’t included in the game, “Anyone But You” took third place, followed by “Salaar” – only five players picked that one – and “The Iron Claw” for fifth. We’ll have to wait until later in the week to see if those five players that picked “Salaar” got the other four right and where they placed their super bets.
Twelve players went six-for-six in the Dec. 15 game, but it was “Max” – currently number-six in the leaderboard for the whole season – who scored the most points by putting in early super bets on “The Hunger Games” and “The Boy and the Heron” to score 102,901 points.
Check back later this week for the January box office preview, as a brand-new box office season begins next week.
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