| Rank | Title | Domestic Gross (Weekend) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | $155,000,000 | $290,500,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Moana | $11,664,000 | $280,258,745 | 4 |
| 3 | Office Christmas Party | $8,450,000 | $51,318,267 | 2 |
| 4 | Collateral Beauty | $7,000,000 | $11,600,000 | 1 |
| 5 | Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them | $5,030,000 | $717,481,095 | 5 |
Notable Box Office Stories:
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So in a shocking twist it turns out Star Wars movies are popular. Yes while Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was far from a total risk, it was sill interesting going in to see if Lucasfilm/Disney could keep the Star Wars brand popular outside of the Skywalker clan. Turns out they can as Rogue One rode it's non-scroll having, no Jedi featuring self to an amazing $155 mil domestic and $290 mil worldwide premiere weekend. So first up records. Rogue One isn't number 1 on any major records but it does have a few key distinctions. It's the 2nd highest December release of all time (behind The Force Awakens but still $70 mil above #3 spot The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), the 12th highest grossing domestic weekend, the 21st highest grossing worldwide weekend, and is already the 15th highest domestic grossing film of the year domestic in just 3 days. So yes while normally a $100 mil downshift in opening weekends would be considered the biggest disaster of all time but of course we know that TFA's success was unparalleled, beating the all-time opening weekend record by $50 mil and the December opening weekend record by almost triple. So now that Rogue One has opened great, now the real test begins. A lot of concern has been laid on the film and its ability to be a viable longtail entry in December. With a much darker tone than TFA, more violent imagery, and overall lower rated reviews one could worry that other films could pick away at this success and decrease the repeat viewings that made TFA so unbelievably popular. However the film does have an A on Cinemascore so maybe audiences are more accepting of this film than expected. However unlike TFA, Hollywood this year seems to think it can compete directly with Star Wars as it has four major wide releases schedule for next holiday weekend including Passengers (a major A-list vehicle), Assassin's Creed (a major video game franchise adaptation), Why Him? (a R-rated comedy clearly trying to get the same holiday bump that last year's Daddy's Home had), and Sing (latest animated film from marketing geniuses Illumination). That's a lot of competition so Rogue One could be looking at a huge drop next weekend, or it could maintain. One thing is certain, Disney have been the king's of the domestic box office this year so I can see Rogue One cutting through those obstacles. The other thing to look out for is of course foreign. While the foreign take for TFA was clearly good (it made $1 bil overseas for god's sake), it definitely didn't deliver the same mega success it got in places like Germany and The UK in Asian countries like China and Japan. Clearly in terms of China, Rogue One is hoping to get a little extra from the casting of Donnie Yen, one of their biggest stars. But with The Great Wall conquering the market one wonders if there's room right now for Rogue One in that slate. Still Rogue One has proven that there's still a big market for Star Wars out there so don't think this yearly Star Wars thing is going to end any time soon.
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Oh Will Smith, what happened to you man? From king of the box office to being in one of the most hated movies of the year as Will Smith's latest bomb Collateral Beauty is now his biggest, opening at #4 with $7 mil, the lowest wide release opening ever for Will Smith. The film, a clear Oscar bait contender, was horribly savaged by critics before release. Normally I don't blame the critics for a poorly reviewed movie flopping but if there's one thing we've learned this year from movies like Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Miss Sloane, it's that Oscar plays with no buzz have zero traction whatsoever in the marketplace. Deadline wrote a great article about Collateral Beauty and while I disagree with the tone of it, I do think it's interesting that WB had a pretty well received movie on their hands that failed so badly. Of course outside of critics there's the infamous bait-and-switch trailers which have been extremely blasted by critics and film fans, however they don't even seem to be a big factor on general audiences as Cinemascore rated this film with an A-. Perhaps the most interesting film to compare this to is Seven Pounds, another weepy Oscar never-was starring Will Smith that also got extremely negative reviews yet went on to make $156 mil worldwide. So why did Seven Pounds succeed but Collateral Beauty might not even pass its $36 mil budget? Well it seems clear that the era of the A-lister may well be over (at least with Will Smith it is). Now I think we have to look very closely at another movie with bait-and-switch ads with horrible reviews and an A-list cast coming out next week, Passengers. If the new hot commodities of J Law and Pratt can't save a horribly reviewed major film on star power alone then it could be the power of the critic and word of mouth is more powerful than I thought.
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Oscar update time as Manchester by the Sea passed Arrival and Doctor Strange to be #6 this week with $4.1 mil. As the film continues to be the front runner for Best Actor, it added 800 theaters which boosted it 31%. However it seems like La La Land is just waiting to burst that bubble as in just 200 theaters the film managed to come in just under Manchester with $4 mil at #7. This marks an amazing $20,100 per theater average, a remarkable feat for a film in over 150 theaters. Right now it seems like the plan is to roll out the film to maybe 200 - 300 more theaters for Christmas weekend then go wide the following weekend. This would put it in prime contention to soak up all the awards buzz it's getting and as the current front-runner for Best Picture and a fun musical boot I wouldn't be surprised if La La Land is our first true hit Best Picture winner in a while. Finally the new Oscar contender this week to open tiny is Fences, the Denzel Washington directed/starring drama based on the famed August Wilson play. The film opened to $128,000 on 4 theaters, giving it a per theater average of $32,000 which was probably mostly lead on the performance by Viola Davis which is now the shoe-in for Best Supporting.
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While the casting of Matt Damon in The Great Wall caused a lot of controversy in the West, it seems China loved the choice as the film opened there to $67.4 mil on its opening weekend. The film directed by Zhang Yimou is the most expensive Chinese film of all time with a budget of $135 mil and is clearly hoping to become the first Chinese film to be a major hit at home and in the US. At least on the Chinese side this is coming true as the film has had one of the best premieres of the year and with Chinese films being more highly prioritized in that country, expect the film to break even before even arriving on the US shores. As for if the film will be a success here in the US, that is much harder to say. It's being released wide in February with not too stiff of competition so it could very well work, but with a pretty bland marketing campaign for the US it could easily falter.
Films Reddit Wants to Follow
This is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.
| Title | Domestic Gross (Cume) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Budget | Week # |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your Name | N/A | $275,899,756 | Unk | 16 |
| Moonlight | $11,502,201 | $11,502,201 | $5 mil | 9 |
| Doctor Strange | $226,086,027 | $652,886,027 | $165 mil | 7 |
| Arrival | $86,468,367 | $135,539,359 | $47 mil | 6 |
Notable Film Closings
| Title | Domestic Gross (Cume) | Worldwide Gross (Cume) | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bridget Jones's Baby | $24,139,805 | $211,839,805 | $35 mil |
| Bleed for This | $5,083,906 | $5,402,281 | $6 mil |
| Deepwater Horizon | $61,433,527 | $118,588,993 | $110 mil |
| Pete's Dragon | $76,233,151 | $142,318,880 | $65 mil |
As always /r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.
Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at /r/moviesboxoffice.