Friday Estimates: Skywalker is still Sky High, Grudge Makes Many Moviegoers Mad

January 4, 2020

It looks like it is going to be a good weekend at the box office, as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is beating expectations at the box office, and it isn’t the only film to do so. The latest in the Star Wars franchise earned an estimated $11.0 million on Friday, putting it on pace for $37 million over the full weekend. The film needed about $31 million to remain on pace to hit $500 million domestically, so with this result, it is no longer a matter of if it will get there, but how fast it will get there. On the other hand, this is not enough to make a realistic run at The Lion King for second place on the 2019 domestic chart.

Jumanji: The Next Level was next with $8.63 million on Friday, and Sony is projecting close to $26 million over the full weekend. This is much better than expected and means $300 million domestically is no longer completely out of reach. It will still be difficult to get to and matching its predecessor is out of the question, but the film will pay for its entire $125 million production budget and will be profitable before hitting the home market.

The Grudge opened in third place with $5.35 million on Friday, but it is not going to stay there for long. The reviews are awful and the film managed an F from CinemaScore. An F! Do you know how rare that is? It is only the 20th film to earn an F rating from CinemaScore. Horror films tend to have short legs and this result won’t help its cause. That said, the film reportedly cost just $10 million to make and it should match that during its opening weekend.

Little Women earned fourth place, with $4.42 million putting it on pace for close to $13 million over the full weekend. This is within a rounding error of expectations, but on the high side, so both Sony and myself are happy with this result.

Frozen II managed $3.97 million on Friday, putting it on pace for $11 million over the full weekend. The film is already ahead of the first film’s final domestic box office and it has climbed into third place on the 2019 domestic chart. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will overtake it shortly, but this is still a fantastic run.

- Thursday Previews
- Weekend Predictions
- Theater Counts

- Fastest to $500 million - Fastest to $400 million
- 2019 Domestic Box Office

- Friday Box Office Chart
- New Year’s Day Box Office Chart

C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Friday Estimates, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen II, The Grudge, Jumanji: The Next Level, Little Women, Star Wars