Box Office: 'Wakanda Forever' Powers On While Audiences Opt Out Of 'Strange World'
Weekend box office information is provided by Daniel Garris, courtesy of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Disney's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever easily held steady in first place this weekend with an estimated $45.90 million over the three-day frame. With the aid of continued strong word of mouth, holding onto IMAX screens, the Thanksgiving holiday frame and this weekend's new releases being collectively weaker than usual by Thanksgiving standards, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever stabilized very nicely this weekend by declining a very solid 31.0 percent. Over the 5-day Thanksgiving holiday frame, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever grossed an estimated $64.00 million. With a 17-day domestic total of $367.67 million, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently the sixth highest grossing release of 2022 thus far domestically and before long the film will surpass The Batman, Minions: The Rise of Gru and Jurassic World Dominion to move into third place for the year. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now running 7.3 percent ahead of the $342.79 million 17-day gross of this year's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (which declined 47.7 percent in its third weekend to gross $32.30 million). Black Panther: Wakanda Forever registered the thirteenth largest third weekend gross of all-time and the third largest third weekend gross since the re-opening of domestic theatres (behind only last year's Spider-Man: No Way Home and this year's Top Gun: Maverick).
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever passed the $300 million international mark after grossing an estimated $32. 1 million internationally this weekend from 50 international markets. Respective totals for the film stand at $307.9 million internationally and $675.6 million globally. Estimated international totals by market for Black Panther: Wakdana Forever through Sunday include $32.3 million in the United Kingdom, $29.3 million in Mexico, $25.2 million in France, $16.2 million in Brazil, $15.9 million in South Korea, $15.1 million in Australia, $13.4 million in Germany, $11.8 million in Indonesia, $10.3 million in India, $7.8 million in Japan and $7.8 million in Italy. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever grossed an estimated $5.4 million from global IMAX screens this weekend ($4.0 million domestically and $1.4 million internationally). To date, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has grossed $27.7 million from domestic IMAX screens and $15.7 million from international IMAX screens for a global IMAX total of $43.5 million.
While Disney had continued good news with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this weekend, the studio had bad news with the debut of its Strange World. The pricey sci-fi computer animated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios disappointed with an estimated three-day second place start of $11.90 million. Over the five-day frame, Strange World grossed an estimated $18.60 million. Heading into the weekend, consensus expectations for Strange World had tended to range anywhere from $25 million to $40 million for the five-day frame. Strange World started out 54.2 percent below the $40.57 million five-day Thanksgiving weekend launch of last year's Encanto. In addition to this weekend's poor start, for a family film Strange World looks to be going over below average with audiences, as Strange World received a B rating on CinemaScore (typically animated films receive higher ratings on CinemaScore) and the film's five-day to three-day weekend ratio of 1.56 to 1 was relatively front-loaded for a family film over Thanksgiving weekend. Over the years, sci-fi and adventure animated films from Disney have tended to struggle at the box office and clearly Strange World continued that trend this weekend. The audience breakdown for the film skewed 52 percent female, 48 percent male, 52 percent under 25 and 48 percent over 25. Family audiences made up an estimated 64 percent of the film's overall audience. Strange World was directed by Don Hall and features the vocal talent of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union and Lucy Liu.
Internationally, Strange World debuted with an estimated $9.2 million from 43 international markets. That places the film's global launch at $27.8 million. International debuts for Strange World this weekend by market included $1.0 million in the United Kingdom, $0.7 million in Spain, $0.7 million in Mexico, $0.7 million in Italy, $0.6 million in Germany, $0.6 million in Japan, $0.5 million in South Korea and $0.4 million in Australia.
While grosses aren't officially being reported for Netflix's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the film debuted in third place this weekend based on unofficial estimates, which range from roughly $12 million to $13.5 million for the five-day holiday frame (with the higher end of that range sounding more likely than the lower end). Making the performance far more impressive is that Glass Onion was playing in just under 700 locations this weekend and on top of that received a fairly average amount of showtimes per location for a new release (and didn't have Tuesday previews shows either). With Glass Onion finishing only a few million behind Strange World over the five-day frame while only playing in a fraction of the locations Strange World played in, clearly Glass Onion was this weekend's most anticipated new release. Glass Onion is only playing in theatres for seven days, prior to being released via streaming on Netflix next month on December 23. In addition to the film's built-in anticipation as the first follow-up to 2019's highly successful Knives Out, Glass Onion was also helped out this weekend by strong critical reviews and increased initial demand as a result of the film's one-week run. Unfortunately, there was only so high Glass Onion could go this weekend given the moderate release of the film. Like Knives Out before it, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daniel Craig. The film's new ensemble cast includes Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista.
Sony's Devotion started out in fourth place this weekend with respective estimated three-day weekend and five-day holiday grosses of $6.00 million and $9.00 million. The J.D. Dillard directed war film, set during the Korean War and starring Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell, debuted in line with its modest pre-release expectations. While Devotion opened in line with expectations, the film didn't perform very well with its price-tag in mind. The decision to release Devotion so soon after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever looks to have further limited the already modest demand for Devotion. On the average, critical reviews for Devotion have been good. The film's current 92 percent Verified Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests that Devotion is going over even better with audiences than it has with critics.
Disney and Searchlight's The Menu rounded out the weekend's top with an estimated $5.20 million over the three-day frame, which was down a respectable 42.3 percent from last weekend's debut. Over the five-day holiday frame, the well-received horror dark comedy grossed an estimated $7.34 million. The ten-day domestic total for The Menu stands at $18.67 million, which is in line with expectations. Internationally, The Menu grossed an estimated $5.4 million this weekend from 41 international markets, including debuts of $0.8 million in Australia and $0.7 million in France. In the coming week, The Menu will open in additional international markets, including Brazil, Hong Kong, Spain and Taiwan, among others.
Over the three-day frame, Warner Bros. and New Line's Black Adam was down just 27.4 percent to place in sixth with an estimated $3.35 million. The comic book adaptation grossed an estimated $4.60 million over the five-day frame. The 38-day domestic total for Black Adam stands at $162.97 million. Internationally, Black Adam grossed an estimated $2.8 million this weekend from 76 international markets. That brings the film's international total to $215.1 million and current global haul to $378.0 million. Black Adam will open in Japan this coming Friday (December 2).
This weekend also saw the expansions of Universal's The Fabelmans and United Artists Releasing and MGM's Bones and All. While they ended up with similar grosses over the three-day weekend, The Fabelmans had the far more impressive expansion given that it was playing in a moderate 638 locations this weekend, in comparison to 2,727 locations for Bones and All. The Steven Spielberg directed The Fabelmans grossed an estimated $2.22 million over the three-day weekend and $3.10 million over the five-day holiday frame. The Luca Guadagnino directed Bones and All grossed an estimated $2.21 million over the three-day weekend and $3.56 million over the five-day frame. Respective total grosses stand at $3.71 million for Bones and All through 10 days and at $3.43 million for The Fabelmans through 17 days. Both films have gone over well with critics, but The Fabelmans looks to be going over better with audiences than Bones and All has, given that The Fabelmans received a healthy A rating on CinemaScore, while Bones and All received a still solid B rating.