Marvel Studio’s Doctor Strange easily retained its box office crown, earning an estimated $43 million and bringing its domestic total to $153 million. The film’s 49% second weekend drop is third smallest in MCU history, and the best showing of the past 10 Marvel Studios releases, trailing only the original Iron Man and Thor. Doctor Strange, which had the honor of pushing Disney to a new worldwide yearly box office record last week (over $6 billion), played a major role in helping the Mouse House set a new domestic box office record in 2016 with $2.3 billion in ticket sales so far.
Doctor Strange, which should end its domestic run well over $200 million, is also doing very well overseas where it has now earned $339.6 million for a worldwide total of $493 million. It should soon surpass Ant-Man ($529 million), and has already passed the foreign earnings of Thor and Iron Man 2. So far there have been no signs that Doctor Strange is not going to be third successful Marvel Studios’ franchise based on a second-tier comic book character (Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man being the others), but next weekend Marvel’s Maestro of Magic will have to overcome a challenge from the magic-infused Harry Potter universe when Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them opens.
Equally impressive so far was the performance of Trolls, the Justin Timberlake/Anna Kendrick animated musical, which declined a paltry 24.8% as it brought its domestic total to $94 million. Dreamworks has produced a number of animated features with strong “legs,” and Trolls appears to have that kind of potential after posting one of the lowest second weekend drops ever for an animated feature that opened with nearly $50 million.
Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival stars Amy Adams as a linguist, who is pressed into service when aliens land on Earth and communication proves difficult. Arrival is a “thinking person’s” sort of hard science fiction, shot through with some heady notions about the influence of language and the fluidity of time. The critics love this sort of science fiction (Arrival has a 93% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences were a bit less enthusiastic, giving the film just an OK “B” CinemaScore. Still, Arrival was predicted to open with just $16 million, so its $24 million bow has got to be a very good sign. Opening weekend audiences skewed male (52%) and older (85% over 25).
Will Packer’s ensemble comedy Almost Christmas was no critical favorite (currently only 44% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences gave the film a solid “A-“ CinemaScore. Opening weekend audiences skewed heavily female (56%) and a bit older (60% over 25). African-Americans made up 71% of the crowd, with Caucasians accounting for 17% and Hispanics 10%. Almost Christmas appears to be well positioned to make hay during the coming holiday season.
Mel Gibson’s gritty war film Hacksaw Ridge also managed a strong sophomore showing, dropping just 29% in its second weekend as it earned $10.8 million to bring its North American total to $32.3 million, while Warner Bros.’ The Accountant, which star Ben Affleck really has had good “legs,” as it dropped just 22% in its fifth weekend while earning $4.6 million to bring its domestic total to $77.7 million. The Accountant demonstrates that there is still room for modestly-budgeted ($44 million) action films with major stars.
This week’s third new film, Europa Corp’s thriller Shut In, which stars Naomi Watts, didn’t make much of a splash, opening with $3.7 million, but many analysts though that Shut In would be lucky to make $2 million, so the film’s actual number is sort of a “win.”
The Tom Cruise-starring Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is another medium budget action film ($60 million), and though it isn’t doing as well as The Accountant here in North America, it does have potential overseas due to Cruise’s popularity, so profitability remains a possibility in spite of a disappointing (so far) domestic showing.
Foreign sales will likely save the Tom Hanks-starring Inferno from a sea of red ink. The third film in the Robert Langdon/Da Vinci Code series, Inferno has flopped here where it has earned just $31.6 million in 17 days, but it has brought in almost 6 times that amount overseas.
Be sure to check back here next week to see if the Harry Potter magic is transferable, when the film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s spin-off prequel novel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in more than 4000 theaters, along with two other new films, the boxing film Bleed for This (in 2000 theaters) and the coming of age drama The Edge of Seventeen (in 1800 theaters).
