Box Office Report: Beyoncé, ‘The Hunger Games’, And Godzilla Put The Rest Of The Box Office On Mute
Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Weekend Estimates Update - December 1st, 2023 to December 3rd, 2023:
Weekend Actuals Update:
With actuals, AMC Theatres Distribution's release of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé finished higher than estimated with a first place debut of $21.801 million.
Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes came in lower than its weekend estimate with a second place take of $14.173 million, while Toho International's Godzilla Minus One finished ahead of its weekend estimate with a third place debut of $11.420 million.
Other weekend actuals for the frame include: Trolls Band Together ($7.830 million), Wish ($7.707 million), Napoleon ($7.277 million), Animal ($6.479 million), The Shift ($4.300 million), Silent Night ($3.010 million), Thanksgiving ($2.622 million), The Marvels ($2.526 million), Saltburn ($1.688 million), The Holdovers ($1.203 million), Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film ($0.620 million), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (48 1/2 Anniversary re-issue) ($0.478 million from 540 locations), Killers of the Flower Moon ($0.462 million) and Five Nights at Freddy's ($0.412 million).
Weekend Estimates Written Update:
AMC Theatres Distribution's Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé debuted in first place this weekend with an estimated $21.00 million. The concert documentary directed by and starring Beyoncé opened just ahead of consensus expectations heading into the weekend and performed well by typical standards for a concert documentary. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (in combination with a number of other new releases this weekend) also helped bring some life to the traditionally slow weekend after Thanksgiving weekend frame. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé delivered the largest opening weekend performance for the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend since the $24.27 million start of The Last Samurai all the way back in December of 2003. Following the much publicized release of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film back in October, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé represents the second successful release for new distributor AMC Theatres Distribution. While Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé didn't come close to the $92.80 million debut of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film, it hadn't been expected to, due in part to much softer pre-sales and in part to being a concert documentary rather than a concert film. Like Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé also benefited from higher than usual ticket prices.
Not surprisingly, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé was quite front-loaded this weekend towards opening day, as the concert documentary had an estimated opening weekend to opening day ratio of 1.83 to 1 after opening with $11.5 million on Friday (including an estimated $5.06 million from Thursday preview shows that began at 6PM). Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé went over exceptionally well with audiences, as the film received a perfect A+ rating on CinemaScore. That reception could potentially help the concert documentary stabilize down the line once the front-loading from the initial rush-out is out of the way. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé grossed an estimated $4.6 million from domestic IMAX screens this weekend. That represented 21.9 percent of this weekend's overall domestic gross, which was especially impressive given that some domestic IMAX screens and showtimes went to Godzilla Minus One this weekend. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé wasn't as impressive internationally this weekend, as the concert documentary grossed an estimated $6.4 million from 94 international markets. That places the global launch for Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé at $27.4 million. It should be noted that there are still some larger international markets the concert documentary has yet to open in, including Brazil, Italy and Spain. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé grossed an estimated $0.50 million from international IMAX screens this weekend, for a global IMAX take of $5.1 million this weekend.
Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes continued to display exceptional holding power, as the successful prequel declined 50.1 percent from last weekend's three-day frame to place in second this weekend with an estimated $14.50 million. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes held up very well for a high-profile franchise film the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend and held up especially well for a film in The Hunger Games franchise the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend. The three prior The Hunger Games films to be released the weekend before Thanksgiving weekend all had third weekend declines in the range of 61 percent to 65 percent. With that said, it should also continue to be reminded that The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opened significantly lower than the previous films in the franchise. The 17-day domestic total for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes stands at $121.24 million. That is 18.6 percent ahead of the $102.20 million 17-day total of 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which declined 57.2 percent in its third weekend (also the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend) to gross $10.36 million. With continued strong word of mouth, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes should continue to hold up well going forward. Internationally, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes grossed an estimated $14.9 million this weekend. That brings the film's international total to $122.7 million and current global haul to $243.9 million.
Toho International's Godzilla Minus One also had a very nice performance this weekend with an estimated third place debut of $11.03 million. The Takashi Yamazaki directed Japanese-language Godzilla film opened just ahead of late-rising expectations and performed exceptionally well for a Japanese-language Godzilla film in North America. Typically Toho produced Godzilla films don't receive wide releases in North America, but Godzilla Minus One was released in 2,308 locations this weekend and the decision certainly paid off. Exceptional critical reviews look to have given Godzilla Minus One a boost at the box office this weekend and the film looks to be going over just as well with audiences after receiving a strong A rating on CinemaScore. Godzilla Minus One grossed an estimated $1.5 million from domestic IMAX screens (which as mentioned, were split with Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé this weekend), which represented 13.6 percent of this weekend's overall domestic gross. All premium formats (including IMAX) were responsible for 37 percent of this weekend's overall domestic gross. The global IMAX take for Godzilla Minus One currently stands at an estimated $4.6 million. Along with the increasing popularity of anime films in North America in recent years, this weekend's performance of Godzilla Minus One points towards an increasing demand in general for Japanese produced films in North America. Next weekend will see the release of another critically acclaimed film from Japan, with GKIDS' release of Hayao Miyazaki's critically acclaimed animated film The Boy and the Heron.
Meanwhile, it was a tight three-way race for fourth place this weekend between Universal and DreamWorks Animation's Trolls Band Together, Disney's Wish and Sony and Apple's Napoleon. The weekend estimates for the three films are close enough to one another that there is the possibility that this weekend's order of finish could still change when actuals are released on Monday; but for now Trolls Band Together is in fourth with an estimated $7.60 million, Wish is in fifth with an estimated $7.41 million and Napoleon is in sixth with an estimated $7.13 million.
Trolls Band Together had the best percentage hold of the three films this weekend by declining a still sizable 57.3 percent, while Wish was down a concerning 62.4 percent and Napoleon fell a sharp 65.5 percent. The weekend after Thanksgiving weekend usually isn't the best frame for holdovers even when there (usually) isn't much new competition entering the marketplace and that was understandably even more so the case this weekend with a number of new wide releases entering the marketplace. Napoleon also took an additional hit this weekend from losing its IMAX screens and showtimes (especially since the film performed well in IMAX last week). Respective total domestic grosses stand at a very solid $74.83 million for Trolls Band Together through 17 days, at a so-so $45.74 million for the expensive Napoleon through 12 days and at a disappointing $41.96 million for the expensive Wish over the same 12-day span.
Napoleon held up significantly better internationally this weekend with an estimated $28.6 million from 63 international markets (including a debut of $2.8 million in China). That brings the film's international total to $90.9 million and current global haul to $136.6 million. With the aid of a debut of $4.1 million in France and a $3.5 million debut in Germany, Wish also was more impressive internationally this weekend than domestically. Wish grossed an estimated $18.8 million from 33 international markets this weekend, which brings the film's international total to $39.6 million and current global total to $81.6 million. Trolls Band Together grossed an estimated $3.9 million internationally this weekend from 71 international markets, including a $1.8 million debut in Australia. Respective totals for Trolls Band Together stand at $85.8 million internationally and at $160.6 million globally.
Moksha Movies and Nirvana Cinemas' release of Animal debuted in seventh place with an estimated $6.14 million from just 700 locations. That gave the Hindi-language action film from India a per-location average of $8,771 for the frame, which was the highest per-location average among this weekend's top ten films. Animal delivered the second largest opening weekend ever for a Bollywood film in North America, behind only the $6.88 million debut of Pathaan earlier this year (back in January) and just ahead of the $6.12 million start of Jawan (also earlier this year – back in September). As we have seen with recent films from Japan, there continues to be increased demand in North America for films from India as well. Animal was directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga and stars Ranbir Kapoor and Anil Kapoor.
This weekend also saw the wide releases of Angel Studios' The Shift and Lionsgate's Silent Night. The Shift debuted in eighth place with an estimated $4.36 million, while Silent Night followed in ninth place with an estimated $3.00 million. Both films performed in line with pre-release expectations. The Shift looks to be going over fairly well with audiences, as the film received a B+ rating on CinemaScore. Silent Night doesn't look to be going over as well, as the John Woo directed action film received a modest C rating on CinemaScore.
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