Weekend Wrap-Up: Thanksgiving Shows 2019 still has some Spark Left
December 2, 2019
2019 hasn’t been a great year and has consistently been behind 2018. However, 2018 was the biggest ever year at the box office and 2019 has been in a battle for second place for much of the year. Thanksgiving beat expectations and the overall performances over the Thanksgiving weekend really helped 2019’s chances to secure second place. Frozen II broke records earning first place for its three-day and five-day Thanksgiving weekends. In fact, its three-day weekend haul of $85.98 million would have landed in third place on the all-time five-day chart. Additionally, both new releases, Knives Out and Queen and Slim, topped expectations leading to a robust box office. Granted, the overall box office was a little lower, down 12%, from last weekend at $180 million. This is common for Thanksgiving, as the Wednesday and Thursday holidays are so popular with moviegoers that they reduce the box office potential of the Friday through Sunday weekend. This is 56% higher than the same weekend last year, but this is due to a misalignment in the holidays. This Thanksgiving was 16.5% lower than last year’s Thanksgiving, but the misalignment of the holidays does have an effect there as well, so it isn’t a perfect comparison either. Next weekend will be a lot better when it comes to the year-over-year comparison. Year-to-date, 2019 is still behind 2018 by a large margin, but 2019 was able to close to the gap a bit to 6.0% or $640 million at $10.03 billion to $10.67 billion. Getting that gap lower is the goal for December, as it is virtually impossible that 2019 will catch up completely. I would be really impressed if they can cut that gap in half.
Frozen II earned $85.98 million / $125.02 million during the Thanksgiving weekend giving it a two-week running tally of $288.85 million. Normally, a film like this would have a sizable drop-off in the post-holiday weekend, but there’s not much competition next week. Furthermore, the Christmas break is only about two weeks away, so that should really help the film’s legs. At this point, getting to $400 million domestically and past the first Frozen is trivial, while it should get past $450 million by the end of its run. That will be more than enough to break even, likely before reaching the home market. It depends on how much it cost to advertise.
Knives Out opened with $26.77 million / $41.41 million, which is more than it cost to make. The film’s reviews and its A minus from CinemaScore suggest long legs, as do the upcoming holidays. Getting to $100 million domestically is the goal and as long as it can remain in wide release until the new year, it should be able to get there. Granted, there are some huge films coming out that will need as many screens as possible, so this film could be squeezed out of a lot of theaters by Christmas Day. We will just have to wait and see what happens.
Ford v Ferrari landed in third place with $13.17 million / $19.02 million over the weekend for a total of $81.03 million after three weeks of release. The film will get to $100 million, but it will likely slip out of the top five before it gets there.
Two different films could claim fourth place over the weekend, depending on how many days you were looking at. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood earned fourth place over the five-day weekend with $17.25 million, but had to settle for fifth place over the three-day weekend with $11.78 million. Its two-week total was $34.29 million and it could last a long time in theaters, so it is doing well so far.
Meanwhile, Queen and Slim earned fourth place over the three-day weekend with $11.89 million and fifth plae including Wednesday and Thursday at $16.00 million. Its reviews and its A minus from CinemaScore suggest long legs. In fact, its theater average suggests it will expand this coming Friday.
The only film in the sophomore class not in the top five was 21 Bridges, which fell 40% during the three-day weekend to just $5.59 million, while it earned $7.68 million over five days. Its theater average is low enough that it will likely start losing theaters, if not this Friday, certainly by next Friday.
-8-News.jpg)
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Frozen II, PLAYMOBIL, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Ford v. Ferrari, 21 Bridges, Queen & Slim, Knives Out