Disney Animation and its sister studio Pixar have released the top seven Thanksgiving films of all time (not adjusted for inflation), and Coco, which is a delightful fantasy adventure about a 12-year-old Mexican boy, who, against the wishes of his family, wants to become a guitar player like his idol, posted a $71.2 million five-day opening, the fourth best Turkey weekend showing behind Frozen ($93.6 million), Moana ($82.1 million), and Toy Story 2 ($80.1 million in 1999, which translates to $141 million in 2017).
Coco has already set all kinds of box office records in Mexico, where it has earned $55 million, and the colorful film is set to do major business overseas. After a slow opening day in China with just $2 million, Coco quickly rose on strong word-of-mouth and finished the weekend with $18 million. After a rare misfire (Cars 3) Pixar badly needed a critical hit that also found favor with audiences, and Coco has delivered with a stellar 96% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and an excellent “A+” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences (Coco is the sixth Pixar film to receive the highly coveted “A+” score from opening weekend audiences). Fifty-three percent of the audience for Coco was made up of women, while 55% of the crowd was under 25.
Pixar’s films generally have solid “legs” here in North America, so it should be interesting to see how Coco fares over the coming weeks. Can a colorful and extremely well-made film that celebrates key elements of a vibrant Mexican culture find favor in Donald Trump’s America? The next few weeks should provide the answer.
Second place went to Warner Bros. Justice League, which in spite of being the most expensive film produced yet in the DC Extended Universe, posted the lowest opening total of all of the DCEU titles last weekend. Justice League earned $40.1 million in its second frame, posting what appears to be a reasonable 56.6% drop. However when comparing Justice League with other fantasy films that were not based on a YA properties and opened the weekend before Thanksgiving, it turns out that Justice League dropped more than any film since the highly forgettable Mortal Kombat: Annihilation back in 1997, so we still don’t have a definitive fix on where Justice League will end up its run here in North America.
Internationally Justice League is doing much better, and it earned another $72.2 million bringing its overseas earnings to $309 million for a global total of $481.3 million. Unfortunately Warner Bros. gets a smaller share of overseas earnings, and with a production cost (with extensive retakes) that is reportedly in the neighborhood of $300 million, and the current 35% domestic and 65% overseas earnings split, it would appear that this DC Universe team-up film will have to end up with well over $600 million globally just to break even.
Third place went to Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation of Wonder, R.J. Palacio’s heartwarming novel about a child with a facial deformity, which in spite of direct competition from Coco for the family audience posted just a 19% drop as it earned $22.3 million to bring its domestic total to nearly $70 million. Like Coco, Wonder scored an “A+” CinemaScore, which means that it should continue to display strong “legs” for quite some time.
Disney, which took the number one spot with Coco, also had the #4 film, Thor: Ragnarok, which dipped 22.5% as it added 16.8 million to bring its North American total to $277.5 million. Notice the small percentage drop, which is typical of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend—other than Justice League no film in the top ten dropped more than 29.9%. Ragnarok is now certain to pass the $300 million mark domestically, and has earned $512 million overseas for a current global total north of $790 million against a production budget of $180 million.
The comedy sequel Daddy’s Home 2 fell just 8.2% as it earned $13.3 million to bring its 17-day total to $72.6 million, which would be great for an ordinary comedy film, but the star-laded Daddy’s Home 2 cost $69 million to produce, which means it still has a long way to go to become profitable.
Fox’s star-studded Murder on the Orient Express posted the lowest drop in the top 10, just 5.8% as it brought in $13 million to bring its North American total to $74. 2 million. This adult-skewing period mystery has earned $122.6 million overseas for a global total over $196 million, and with a production cost of just $55 million, this venerable Agatha Christie whodunit has become an unlikely under-the-radar hit.
Sony’s faith-based animated film The Star brought in $6.9 million to bring its ten-day total to an underwhelming $22 million, which means this $20 million production still has a long way to go to escape red ink, which is not the case for the R-rated comedy A Bad Mom’s Christmas, which added $5 million, bringing its domestic total to $60 million versus a cost of $28 million.
Sony took Roman J. Israel, Esq., Dan Gilroy’s legal thriller starring Denzel Washington, from 4 theaters to nearly 1700 with indifferent results as the film earned just $4.5 million. In spite of the slow start there is still some hope for this film given Washington’s loyal fans and his strong performance in a film that has only middling reviews (54% positive on RT).
Two films with definite Oscar potential, Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird both did well (for serious adult movies), earning about $4 million each in moderately limited release (614 and 791 venues respectively).
Not faring so well in a similarly limited release (626 theaters) was The Man Who Invented Christmas, which earned just $1.3 million. The biopic, which stars Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens, examines the circumstances under which the famed 19th Century novelist wrote his famous “A Christmas Carol.”
One film that did extremely well in a very limited release (just 4 theaters) was Luca Guadagnino’s coming of age story Call Me By Your Name, which stars Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet in a romance set in a spectacularly picturesque Italian landscape. The film earned over $400K for a sterling average of $101,219, the best limited release showing since La La Land in 2016.
Be sure and check back here next week to see what happens during yet another weekend when there are no new wide studio releases, though a trio of interesting films will have limited debuts including Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, an intriguing fantasy film inspired by The Creature From the Black Lagoon, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and currently has a critical rating of 98% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, a comedy drama about the making of one of the worst films of all time, Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult movie The Room, and Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel from Amazon Studios.
