Everett Collection
TO UPDATE: The Thanksgiving route will see the most moviegoing this fall after being slowed by the actors’ strike.
Currently, the ranking of the top five films in terms of box office looks better than the top five of 2021, our first post-pandemic holiday, which grossed $142 million across all titles, per Box Office Mojo. From Thanksgiving Wednesday through Sunday, all films grossed $134 million. Five-day forecasts are always difficult, so take everything with a grain of salt right now.
Disney Animation’s Princess Movie Wish by Frozen franchise director Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn leads with one $8.7 million Wednesday (including $2.3 million worth of previews) on 3,900 sites, which is one $24 million to $27 million 3 days and $40 to $45 million 5 days. The Rotten Tomatoes audience rating is 84% and the critics rating is 46%. Desired costs between $175 and $200 million before P&A.
Everett Collection
Second place will likely go to Lionsgate’s second weekend rivals The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in 3,776 cinemas, which is worth seeing $7 million today, +8% compared to Tuesday, for 3 days $25 million to $31 million (-30% to -44%), and 5 days $36 million to $45 million. Even if the ratings are higher than Wish, the Disney film will definitely come in at number 1. At the higher end this would be the film directed by Francis Lawrence $101.4 million until Sunday. The five-day run of Harry Potter spinoffs “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” took in $65.5 million and $42.3 million, respectively. The Last Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, which is not a competition, grossed $76 million during the Thanksgiving holiday in 2015.
Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Sony Pictures
Original Apple productions Napoleondistributed by Sony and playing in 3,500 theaters, is $7.4 million today, including last night’s $3 million, a three-day low $20 million and 5 days $28-32 million. This will certainly top the opening of Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci ($14.4 million for 3 days and $22 million for 5 days), which was also rated R. This picture had a running time of 2 hours 38 minutes, which is the same as Napoleon. The RT audience score is 68%, not far from the critics score of 64%. Napoleon reportedly cost $200 million.
Fourth belongs to Universal/DreamWorks Animation Trolls band together in 3,870 theaters with a Wednesday of $5 million3 days $18 million (-40%) and 5 days $26.3 million and running total of $65.4 million.
Fifth is the horror film from TriStar/Spyglass Media Thanksgiving with a Wednesday from $1.7 million second weekend in the middle range and $9 million 5 days.
PREVIOUS: Image by Ridley Scott from Apple Original Productions Napoleon won via Sony $3 million in the previews on Tuesday night, during Disney’s Wish recorded $2.3 million. Both fired at 3 p.m. It was a good day for moviegoing overall, with 47% of K-12 schools and 20% of colleges attending, according to ComScore; That number jumps to 84% and 66% today, respectively, and to 100% overall on Thursday and through Black Friday.
That’s an impressive number for “Napoleon” considering what an epic war film it is: it’s right below what “1917” scored in previews (7 p.m.) for its wide release in January 2020, which was 3 .25 million, and before Apple/Paramount’s “Killers of” was Flower Moon, which cost $2.6 million.
1917 earned $13.9 million from 3,434 locations on its expanded Friday before posting $37 million over three days. Obviously Napoleon will have a different rough pattern. Killers of the Flower Moon’s first Friday took $9.4 million before posting $23.2 million Friday-Sunday. Additionally, in terms of previews, “Napoleon” is ahead of Ridley Scott’s previous Thanksgiving 5-day release, “House of Gucci,” which grossed $1.3 million. Many people accused Napoleon of the latter.
Napoleon is booked in 3,017 theaters including PLFs and 70MM. Rotten Tomatoes ratings are 66% fresh.
Included in Wish’s preview number are $500,000 worth of limited-edition sneaks from Saturday. The animated Thanksgiving Disney comics here are Coco ($2.3 million Tuesday, $73 million for 5 days in 2017) and Encanto ($1.5 million, $41 million in year 2021). Wish opens today in 3,900 locations domestically, including premium large format, 3D, D-Box and 4D screens. His rating is 50% fishy.
Tracking for Wish discovered a $45 to $50 million 5 day win NapoleonIt’s $22 million. Wish is PG while Napoleon is R-rated. No PostTrak trips from last night. CinemaScore is conducting a poll tonight regarding the opening days of both films.
Lionsgate
Meanwhile Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes took part in all the films $6.5 million (+24% from Monday’s $5.2M) in 3,776 theaters for a five-day total $56.4 million. Songbirds & Snakes will share Imax screens with Napoleon during the five-day holiday. A note on the film’s Monday: It’s the best the fall 2023 box office has seen that day, following “The Equalizer 3’s” Labor Day gross of $8.2 million. The same goes for Songbirds & Snakes’ “Tuesday,” which scored the best results of the current fall season, beating the $5.2 million Halloween version of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Songbirds & Snakes’ 5-day outlook is over $30 million.
RELATED: Review of The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes: A Tale of Power and Insecurity in Panem Before Katniss
Universal/DreamWorks Animation took second place on Tuesday Trolls band together with $4.73 million in 3,870 theaters, +45% from Monday $3.2 million with a running total of $38 million (Read the review here).
Eli Roth horror film from TriStar and Spyglass Media Thanksgiving came third with $1.85 million (+54% from Monday) from 3,204 locations, bringing its total domestic gross since Friday to $13 million (review here).
Disney/Marvel Studios’ The wonders extrapolated $1.5 million yesterday at 4,030, +34%, for a $67 million Running total in the middle of the second week (review here).
Five nights at Freddy’swhich is playing on Peacock and in 2,829 theaters $530,000 yesterday +4%, for a $133.7 million running total in the middle of week 4 (review here).