Just like the start of the holiday season in November, Hollywood failed to offer anything new this weekend that moviegoers wanted to flock towards. Even getting past the first week dumping ground of December, there was the appearance of two titles that might have resonated with fans at one time, but that seems like ancient history now, especially after seeing the numbers this weekend. This is another calm before the storm, as audiences either save their money to take their families to a pair of releases next week or just continue to catch up on two of the biggest films of the year.
King of the Crop: Moana 2 Surpasses Dune: Part Two
Disney’s Moana 2 led the way for a third straight week, the sixth film of 2024 to pull that off. Another $26.6 million puts the film over $337 million in 19 days. That is a number closely in league with a title mentioned a lot over the past several weeks, most notably as the one who held the Thanksgiving record before Moana 2 came along. That title is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which had $340.1 million at day 19, a couple days after posting a $26.1 million third weekend. In other words, the film that was usurped is now potentially trending back to become the usurper. Catching Fire finished its run with $424.6 million. After its massive record-breaking start, some analysts were figuring Moana 2 for a half-billion haul domestically. It will certainly play into Christmas break, but it will play third fiddle to Mufasa and Sonic. So for the time being, its goal is to match those Hunger Games numbers, far less than the early estimators. That being said, we are still talking about a film over $717 million worldwide that was not planned to ever see the inside of a theater. That passes Dune: Part Two’s $714.4 million to become the fourth-highest grossing film globally of the year, behind only Inside Out 2 ($1.698 billion), Deadpool & Wolverine ($1.338 billion), and Despicable Me 4 ($969 million).
Rotten Returns: Kraven the Hunter Debuts with a Whimper
No sense in trying to spin this one. The latest in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff villain-to-antihero series of Marvel films, Kraven the Hunter, opened to $11 million. After delays going back to 2022, the film with a budget reported anywhere from $110-130 million opened lower than Madame Web back in February ($15.3 million). Even that film managed to scrounge up $100 million worldwide. Will Kraven be as fortunate, making just an additional $15 million overseas so far? Its not the worst December opening for a $100+ million project but it would rather not join How Do You Know, The Color Purple (2023), West Side Story (2021), Mortal Engines, Ali, Bicentennial Man, and In the Heart of the Sea as the others who failed to achieve even that. Given that roughly three quarters of theatrical releases this year were rated 60% or higher on the Tomatometer, you really have to deliver something bad to see this kind of consensus, and at 15% currently, the only wide releases this year to earn lower Tomatometer scores were Madame Web (11%), Not Another Church Movie (13%), Borderlands (10%), and Summer Camp (8%).
Tales of the Top 10: Audiences Are Still Getting Glicked, Interstellar Finds New Life
Now we look into the great Wicked Moana chase of 2024. Wicked closed the gap again on the weekend, falling behind Moana 2 by just $4 million and earning $22.5 million in its fourth. That’s a 34% drop compared to Moana’s 43% and brings its 24-day total to $359 million, just outside the Top 30 of all time behind Frozen II ($366.4 million) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($363.9 million) and ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($358.4 million) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($357.5 million), though that $22.5 million fourth weekend is higher than all of them. Wicked’s holds are likely to be solid during the Christmas break and could very well extend itself past $450 million domestic. Combined with another $150 million internationally to date, the musical has crossed the half-billion mark ($525 million) and is headed for north of $600 million eventually.
Fourth place goes to Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, continuing on the path it has been on for weeks. Another $7.8 million brings its total to $145.9 million, which is less than $6 million behind the 24-day grosses of Eternals and Twilight; its weekend is just behind their respective $7.92 million and $7.95 million fourths. Gladiator’s hold may also side a bit closer to Twilight through the holiday and stay on track for somewhere in the vicinity of $175 million domestic. The film is now just shy of $400 million worldwide but is still seeking that additional $100 million to recoup its costs before it leaves theaters.
The thought of a Tolkien-inspired project in December not drawing an audience was unheard of — even in the lesser-appreciated Hobbit days. But here we are with the animated The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which has generated very little interest (even by Warner Bros., who fast-tracked it to hold onto the rights) in the weeks leading up to its release. Now it arrives with just a $4.6 million start. Note that the same studio ditched its upcoming Looney Tunes movie, The Day the Earth Blew Up, which is getting a qualifying run for the Oscars this week and opening officially on Feb. 28 from Ketchup Entertainment. This animated Lord of the Rings film that they did release reportedly cost $30 million; it only made $1.8 million on the international side last week, and this week made another $4 million. That’s only a total of $10.3 million. Let’s see what Ketchup can do with Daffy and Porky next year.
Down to sixth place is the biggest bomb of the year, and there is no way to spin that either. Amazon/MGM’s Red One may have added $4.4 million to bring its total to $92.6 million total, but $175 million worldwide does not compute with a $250 million price tag. In fact, it is poised to join a fascinating small group of films that cost over $200 million but failed to make that amount worldwide. The list is fascinating because it includes Wonder Woman 1984, which can be forgiven due to the pandemic, and three expensive projects distributed by Apple, including last year’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon and this year’s Argylle. Red One could turn out to be a bigger loser than any of them.
A film that was a success 10 years ago is one again for its 10th Anniversary. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar expanded its re-release into 321 theaters this weekend and made another $3.3 million. With $11.7 million in 10 days, the film is about to say it finally made $200 million in domestic theaters, a minor feat compared to the near $500 million it made internationally back in the day. As reissues go, it is now third this year beind the 15th anniversary of Coraline, which made over $33 million across five weeks, and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which made $13 million for its 25th anniversary. Meanwhile, the 2003 animated Daft Punk film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem about alien musicians from Trafalgar Releasing made it into the top 10 with $2.3 million itself. Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2 also spent a second weekend in the top 10 with $3.7 million, bringing its 11-day total to $13.0 million.
Beyond the Top 10: Awards Hopefuls Queer, Flow, and Nickel Boys Find Audiences
Luca Guadagnino’s Queer increased to 460 theaters this weekend, where it made $791,000. The A24 release hoping to snag an Oscar nomination for Daniel Craig has grossed $1.92 million to date. By comparison, their Y2K fell 68% and made $684,000 for just $3.7 million total. The wordless animated feature Flow is in 377 theaters and made $374,000 to bring its total to $1.32 million.
In just seven theaters, Paramount’s September 5 made $89,000 for a less noteworthy per-theater average of $12,000. Neon’s release of Joshua Oppenheimer’s apocalyptic musical The End moved into 151 theaters and grossed just $51,000 for a total of close to $80,000 to date. Much stronger on the PTA front was RaMell Ross’ well-reviewed awards contender Nickel Boys, which made $60,844 in two NY theaters for Amazon/MGM/Orion. Its per-theater average of $30,422 is the 12th best of the year. It would have been the 11th best, but Roadside also opened Pamela Anderson’s bid for awards, The Last Showgirl, in a single theater and made $50,300. You can do the math if you wish, but that would be the fifth-best PTA of the year if the estimates hold.
Rolling Milestones: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Becomes Lionsgate’s Top 2024 Film
This weekend Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever fell just 10% and grossed $1.3 million. The news is that, with $36.6 million, it became the studio’s highest-grossing domestic release of 2024 this week. Another cool story that has been occurring since the end of January is the release of Mike Cheslik’s Hundreds of Beavers. It has played in no more than 24 theaters on any given weekend all year, but it has played somewhere, and those special screenings have now grossed over $600,000. More than half of that has also happened after its streaming release. The film even received two award nominations from the Chicago Film Critics Association (of which I am a part) last week for Best Use of Visual Effects and Most Promising Filmmaker for Cheslik.
On the Vine: Mufasa and Sonic Battle for Young Eyeballs
As we have been mentioning its going to be a big week for families. Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King opens and hopes to get anywhere in the vicinity of its predecessor, the 10th highest-grossing film worldwide of all time. Critics are waiting to see what Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins has brought to this CGI enterprise. Up against it is Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The second film bested the original, which had its run cut a little short by the pandemic. Can the third time be an even bigger charmer? Also opening are a pair of limited releases from A24, including Nicole Kidman in Halina Reijn’s sexy follow-up to Bodies Bodies Bodies, Babygirl, which has earned critical acclaim. Kidman is hoping to stay in the Best Actress conversation, while the studio is pinning a lot of its hopes on Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist to be one of this year’s biggest Oscar players.
Full List of Box Office Results: December 13-15, 2024
-
61%
86%
Moana 2
(2024)
– $26.6 million ($337.5 million total)
-
88%
95%
Wicked
(2024)
– $22.5 million ($359 Million Total)
-
15%
73%
Kraven the Hunter
(2024)
– $11 million ($11 Million Total)
-
71%
82%
Gladiator II
(2024)
– $7.8 million ($145.9 Million Total)
-
51%
84%
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
(2024)
– $4.6 million ($4.6 Million Total)
-
30%
90%
Red One
(2024)
– $4.4 million ($92.6 Million Total)
-
– –
78%
Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2
(2024)
– $3.7 million ($13 Million Total)
-
73%
87%
Interstellar
(2014)
– $3.3 million ($11.7 Million Total)
-
88%
95%
Daft Punk & Leiji Matsumoto’s Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
(2003)
– $2.3 million ($2.3 Million Total)
-
92%
97%
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
(2024)
– $1.35 million ($36.6 Million Total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.
Thumbnail image by ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
