Refresh for latest…: Here we are in the pre-holiday period with strong returns from the top two studio titles already in the marketplace, and a not unexpected uninspiring start from a movie that has jumped around the calendar. Taking the latter first, much as it has Stateside, Sony’s Kraven the Hunter failed to whip up
Wicked
On the Los Angeles Times’ culture desk back in the 2010s, reporters would have a shorthand for readers’ hypersensitivity to spoilers. “And Rosebud was a sled,” a journalist might say upon reading aloud such subscriber feedback, which might prompt another to volley back, “And Bruce Willis was dead the whole time.” Those two references, of
Sony’s $110M Spider-man universe spinoff Kraven the Hunter collected $2M in previews last night while Warner Bros/New Line $30M+ anime movie Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim counted $625K. Neither is expected to wow in their openings in a weekend that will be dominated again by Disney’s Moana 2 which is eyeing a
For all the blah blah that people don’t go to the movies before Christmas, and that moviegoing mushrooms from Christmas Day onward, two holdovers, Moana 2 and Wicked are expected to hold over quite well, with respectively $28M and $20M, -45% a piece, while two incoming fanboy movies fall apart: Sony Marvel’s $110M extended Spider-verse
FRIDAY PM: For all the chatter in years past about people getting distracted by holiday stuff, if there’s one thing that’s on their list this weekend, it’s going to the movies. Disney’s Moana 2 will see a second weekend of $55M-$60M, the most any No. 1 movie has seen during the historically ratcheted down post-Thanksgiving
Refresh for latest…: It was smooth sailing for Disney’s Moana 2 this weekend as it reached $600M global following last frame‘s record-breaking bow. The running split is even for the splashy sequel, with $300M domestic and $300M from the international box office. The full overseas frame was $103.7M in 52 markets, repping a 41% drop.
Numbers are fun as many a math teacher once said, and in a rivalry between Disney’s Moana 2 and Universal’s Wicked, the latter is having the upper hand at the U.S./Canada box office, not just yesterday, but today as well. Wicked made $5M on Wednesday, and is looking at $4.5M today, -10%. That’s ahead of
Moana 2‘s “Hauʻoli lākou” aka good luck continues this weekend as it eyes a $60M second frame. For the post-Thanksgiving first weekend of December, that’s an absolute mind-blowing record for a No. 1-ranking title, whether holdover or new release. The previous high for this frame was in 2019, when the third weekend of Frozen 2
After six days of release worldwide, Disney’s record-breaking Moana 2 stands at $404.5M, passing this year’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ($397.4M) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die ($404.5M), already the No. 9 movie of the year. Yesterday, Moana 2 led at the domestic box office with $5.7M, -83% from Sunday, taking its
UPDATE, with full report: Broadway had its best attended and highest grossing Thanksgiving week in the industry’s recorded history, the Broadway League said today, with its 38 productions grossing a combined $46,046,759, a huge increase over last year’s turkey holiday take of $34,512,033. Attendance for this year’s Thanksgiving week – the Broadway week ending December
SUNDAY AM UPDATE after Nov. 30 post 11:21AM: The Thanksgiving stretch is delivering an unprecedented estimated $420M at the domestic box office, that’s according to Comscore since our post yesterday. EntTelligence reports 46M turkeys were eaten over the holiday while 30M people saw the top three movies. Moana 2 pulled in 17.4M admissions, Wicked 8.7M people while Gladiator II counted $3.3M
MONDAY AM: Everything is higher: Disney’s Moana 2 is settling its 5-day at $225.2M, while Universal’s Wicked is coming in at $118.2M, and Paramount’s Gladiator II at $44.3M. 3-day for Moana 2 is $139.7M after a $34.7M Sunday, -31% from Saturday. For a project that was originally destined to be on Disney+, and was flipped
MONDAY UPDATE with Moana 2 actuals: Now that Sunday’s actuals are in, Disney’s Moana 2 has surfed even higher across its launch frame domestically, swelling the global start to $389M. That’s a new milestone as Disney confirmed the phenom has posted the highest ever reported animated opening weekend at the global box office, overtaking the previous
During the course of a record Thanksgiving weekend, Universal’s Wicked: Part One has become the highest grossing movie ever at the domestic box office based on a Broadway musical. Through yesterday, the Jon M. Chu-directed, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-starring feature counts $214.3M in the midst of its second weekend, defeating the lifetime gross of
The Thanksgiving stretch is delivering an unprecedented estimated $422M at the domestic box office. AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron says that this weekend is “a national phenomenon” when it comes to moviegoing. That Wednesday through Sunday tally for all movies breaks the previous Thanksgiving record for all titles from 2018 when Ralph Breaks the Internet
Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey successfully danced through life on the Wicked set thanks to a shared Broadway background, the pair shared Sunday. “I feel like we were both very theater children in the room,” Grande told People. The pop star plays Glinda, the future Good Witch, who falls for Bailey’s Fiyero in Wicked. Bailey
Black Friday is typically one of the highest grossing days of the year at the box office, but this year it’s coursing to an all-time record with around $107M+ for all movies, led by Disney’s Moana 2. Today also has a shot at being the highest grossing day of 2024 to date, outstripping Friday, July
AMC Theatres, the biggest circuit globally, posted the highest domestic revenue in its 104-year history for a pre-Thanksgiving weekend counting admissions, food and beverage, and merchandise. The past three days, with the debuts of Wicked and Gladiator 2, the circuit also saw the highest domestic admissions revenue on the weekend before Thanksgiving since 2019, and
Before Moana 2 rains a monsoon of cash, Universal’s Wicked will not go quietly in the night. In fact, on Monday the musical starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande was grande indeed with a studio reported $15.8 million box office take. That’s the best Monday ever for November, better than Frozen II ($12.7M on November
EXCLUSIVE: We’re not even past Thanksgiving, and the box office is already busting at the seams. Tonight, I hear that Disney’s PG-rated Moana 2, which started previews at 2PM, is heading to around $12M+ today. That’s a massive Tuesday pre-Thanksgiving preview record for the House of Mouse, beating previous champ, 2018’s Ralph Breaks the Internet
If you were shopping in Target this weekend, you didn’t hear the sound of Christmas carols over the loudspeaker, rather the showstopper “Defying Gravity” from Universal‘s Wicked. But there’s more, for on the main throughfare at the Sunset Blvd location, is a standee of Wicked attire, from slippers to sweatshirts. Meanwhile over at their Starbucks,
In the wake of one of the best pre-Thanksgiving frames in over a decade with Wicked and Gladiator II drumming up a $200M-plus frame, crowded lobbies around the world will remain intact this week as Disney’s Moana 2 joins the fray with what’s expected to be a $225M+, largely day-and-date global opening. That’s just below
Universal has been vindicated, thanks to the witches of Oz and the tenacity of studio chief and top NBCUniversal executive Donna Langley. Over the Nov. 22-24 weekend, director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked opened to an estimated $114 million domestically, the biggest box office launch of all time for a Broadway adaptation in a landslide victory,
Broadway musicals adapted to the screen are an erratic genre at the box office, despite Miramax’s multi-Oscar winning Chicago reviving the long-dormant Hollywood genre back in 2002 with $306.8M WW. Yet for every Les Miserables ($442.7M) hit from Universal, there were massive misfires like Dear Evan Hansen and Cats. This weekend, Universal defied the odds
Wicked movie director Jon M. Chu is encouraging audience members to make an unusual request when they see the film in theaters. Chu, who helmed Universal Pictures‘ feature adaptation of the smash Broadway musical, took to X (formerly Twitter) on the opening evening to post that viewers should ask their theater to increase the volume
UPDATED: Universal’s Wicked is sitting pretty in its global debut, now with a projected $165M through Sunday. As expected, the bulk of the bucks going into the witches’ cauldron is coming from North America, with the anticipated split at $117M domestic and $48M from the international box office. Globally, Wicked will see the biggest opening
It’s a death-defying act to split one property into two movies. Warner Bros did it with the greatest of ease on the final film adaptation of Harry Potter, 2010 and 2011’s Deathly Hallows, which combined grossed $2.3 billion worldwide. However, Lionsgate ran into a buzz saw and tried it with the final Divergent book, Allegiant,
EXCLUSIVE: From New York City to Kansas and onward to the City of Angels, mobs are going to the movies tonight as Universal’s long-awaited Wicked Part One and Paramount’s Gladiator II square off for what is expected to be one of the year’s richest weekends. To date, the biggest weekend for all titles YTD was
Universal’s female Jurassic World movie if you will, the feature take of Broadway musical Wicked, is expected to pull in any every single woman to the tune of a $125M-$150M domestic opening. Add in an extra $40M-$50M from overseas. By every single woman, we mean stateside, in which pre-sales are through the roof. We’re hearing
When it comes to the box office battle between Universal’s Wicked, in which Jeff Goldblum plays the Wizard, and Paramount’s Gladiator II, it will not be a survival of the fittest. Deadline’s Natalie Sitek asked him at Saturday night’s Wicked LA premiere about the Glicked effect that’s expected to take place at the box office