Thor: Ragnarok earned an estimated $56.6 million, a 54% second weekend drop (the smallest in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a film opening with more than $100 million), as it drove its ten-day domestic total to $211.6 million. Ragnarok is already the 12th highest-grossing film in the MCU and will pass Doctor Strange by this time next week. Overseas (where the film opened a week earlier), Ragnarok took in $76 million to drive its total outside North America to $438.5 million and its global tally north of $650 million. Ragnarok is on track to become Marvel Studios’ third film of the year to earn over $800 million worldwide and will likely hit the $300 million mark here in North America, though Justice League, which opens next weekend, could have something to say about that.
Ragnarok’s strong debut (and that of Pixar’s Coco, which set a record for animated films with $41 million in Mexico) pushed Disney’s 2017 box office earnings over the $3 billion mark, making the Mouse House the only studio in the world to hit that mark in each of the past three years.
Second place went to the star-driven comedy Daddy’s Home 2, which stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. The PG-13 laugh-fest could garner only a “16%” positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave the movie a solid “A-“ CinemaScore. Demographically, Daddy’s Home 2 attracted a much higher percentage of females (57%) than the first Daddy’s Home (48%), and once again the crowd skewed somewhat older with 65% over 25 and 52% over 35. The first Daddy’s Home earned $150 million, and Daddy’s Home 2, which cost $69 million to make (a huge budget for a comedy), will have to do equally well.
Just as Daddy’s Home 2 represents an “old school” star-studded studio comedy, so Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express is typical of the old studio “prestige” adaptation that features a classic literary source (Agatha Christie’s venerable, oft-filmed novel) and a lavish production enriched with plenty of star power. The audience for Murder on the Orient Express also skewed female (56%) and older, with 51% over 35. With a “B” CinemaScore and a 48% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Murder’s prospects here are a bit uncertain, but it could well end up with a domestic run in the $75 million range.
The R-rated A Bad Mom’s Christmas dropped just 31.5% in its second frame as it brought in $11.5 million to bring its total to $39.9 million. After a relatively slow start last week, Bad Moms’ Xmas has appeared to have found its mojo, and looks like it will avoid the sad box office fate of the most of the R-rated comedies that came out this year.
After A Bad Mom’s Christmas there was a huge drop-off in earnings, and the only film that really deserves much comment is Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, which finished at #10 in spite of showing in only 37 theaters nationwide (for a sparkling $33,766 average). This indie production appears to be a breakout hit, and don’t be surprised if it gets plenty of Oscar attention. A24, which is distributing the film, plans to continue its gradual rollout with a bigger nationwide expansion over Thanksgiving.
Another film to watch, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a dark comedy written and directed by Martin McDonagh, earned $320,000 from just four theaters for an excellent $80,000 per venue average.
Be sure and check back here next weekend when Warner Bros. will open Justice League in over 4,000 theaters, one of the biggest debuts of the year, while Sony unleashes the biblically-themed animated film The Star, and Lionsgate goes wide with the family drama Wonder. If Justice League does well, it will mean that every major studio superhero film of 2017 has been successful, a record that no other movie genre can match this year.
