After a year that has seen multiple wide releases churned out on the regular, we’re facing a weekend with… no wide releases. Zilch. Unless you’re one of those lucky New York ducks getting Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water (debuting in two theatres). Or James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, opening in limited release. But as for those new nationwide movies, the river is dry.
The early December slot is notorious for being, uh, unfavourable to many a film. This same frame last year yielded Freestyle Releasing’s Believe ($477,387 debut from 638 theatres, a miserable $748 average) and BH Tilt’s Incarnate ($2.53 million debut from 1,737 hubs, a kind-of-miserable-but-not-very $1,459 average). Basically, audiences get their movie fill over Thanksgiving weekend and aren’t terribly down for seconds. There’s also Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi unsheathing its toothy, money-sucking grin in the corner, so take that into account, too.
First place falls to Disney/Pixar’s Coco, without question. Coco’s daily drops have been nearly on par with last year’s Moana, which fell -50.1% in its sophomore frame. That’s a pretty safe bet for Coco, which gives the film $25.4 million over the weekend and a cume around $108m. Coco should play nicely through the month from here. Warner Bros./DC’s Justice League ought to take second, falling around -60% for a $16.4m third weekend and a domestic total over $197m. Justice League has a shot at stabilizing next weekend before The Last Jedi assuredly snatches its audience.
Lionsgate’s Wonder will take third. Last year, Paramount’s Arrival fell -36.6% over the post-Thanksgiving weekend whereas Warner Bros.’ The Blind Side fell -50.0% back in 2009. Wonder should fall -40% over the weekend (a happy enough middle between the two aforementioned movies, I think), giving the Stephen Chbosky drama $13.6m for the weekend/$89m+ total.
That should make up the top three for this weekend. Check below for a further list.
HOLDOVERS
4. Thor: Ragnarok (Disney) – $8.4 million (-50%), $289.7m cume
5. Murder on the Orient Express (Fox) – $7.9 million (-40%), $85.9m cume
6. Daddy’s Home 2 (Paramount) – $6.6 million (-50%), $82.1m cume
7. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Fox Searchlight) – $3.1 million (-30%), $12.3m cume
8. The Star (Sony) – $3.1 million (-55%), $26.4m cume
9. Lady Bird (A24) – $3 million (-25%), $15.4m cume
10. Roman J. Israel, Esq. – $2.5 million (-45%), $10.3m cume
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
