Though this weekend was overall sluggish, the top two movies overperformed. After a month at the box office, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still sitting on the throne at the top of the heap. Over three days, this Marvel sequel generated another $17.59, bringing its domestic haul to $393.7M. Worldwide, it has made $733M. It continues to track higher than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which had a better opening (the highest of 2022).
The response to Wakanda Forever has been overwhelmingly positive, whereas Multiverse of Madness was more divisive. Also… let’s face it, Wakanda Forever just hasn’t had that much competition.
One new movie that did give Wakana Forever a run for its money is the horror-comedy Violent Night starring Daddy David Harbour as a pissed-off Santa Claus. Reactions have been positive, with a B+ CinemaScore and four stars and 76% positive on Posttrak. On Rotten Tomatoes, Violent Night holds a 71% positive but a great 90% certified audience score.
Harbour, as he does with all of his projects, has been banging the drum for Violent Night on social media drawing in the Stranger Things fandom.
Universal Domestic Distribution Chief Jim Orr issued a statement declaring:
“Violent Night had a terrific debut this weekend. 87North, director Tommy Wirkola, and the incomparable David Harbour as Santa crafted an incredibly original, fun, irreverent take on the ultimate superhero that thrilled audiences this weekend and will for many weeks to come.”
Indeed, with a light December slate, Violent Night may coast on the overall Christmas vibes and the fact that this is a very different take on a holiday flick.
Social Media monitors RelishMix explained:
“David Harbour is the hot-trending theme in much of the chatter on Violent Night, and bringing his Stranger Things audience to the comments. Fans are comping the movie to Nobody, Bullet Train, Bad Santa, of course, with Billy Bob Thornton, plus Die Hard — and more recent horror, Smile and Halloween Ends. The tone runs predominantly positive-to-mixed, as fans are happy to have a dark, non-cheesy film to drop into, ‘during the nightmare of the season of merriment.’”
Disney’s animated Strange World is not benefiting from word of mouth because no one is talking about it. This seems to be a total “meh” movie. (It’s expected to hit Disney+ before Christmas if that tells you anything.)
Reactions weren’t terrible (73% RT) but it’s just not up to the standards of other Disney movies.
This weekend, it made $4.9M, bringing its total to $25.5M. That’s a flop. It’s going to be vanquished when Dreamworks’ Puss in Boots: The Last Wish arrives on December 21.
The Menu, on the other hand, is benefiting from strong word of mouth and awards buzz. It earned an additional $3.55M this weekend, bringing its total to $24.7M. It slipped past last week’s #4, Devotion, which dropped to #5.
Check out the Top Five below:
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- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Disney) – 3-day $17.59M/Total: $393.7M/Wk 4
- Violent Night (Universal) – 3 day $13.3M/Wk 1
- Strange World (Disney) – 3-day $4.9M/Total: $25.5M/Wk 2
- The Menu (Searchlight) – 3-day $3.55M/Total $24.7M/Wk 3
- Devotion (Sony) – 3-day $2.8M (-53%) Total $13.8M
Despite rumors to the contrary, Netflix held true to their original agreement and pulled Glass Onions: A Knives Out Mystery from theaters on Tuesday, despite the boost it gave to cinemas. Keep in mind, this was an experiment. I fully expect Netflix, moving forward, to extend the runs of its highly-anticipated original movies at the box office.
There is already talk that Netflix might re-release Glass Onion in theaters after it arrives to stream on the service on December 23. But again, that’s just a RUMOR, so don’t necessarily count on that.
Last weekend, I speculated that Glass Onion drew the adult crown, who knew that this was a limited engagement run and chose to check it out instead of Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans which will have a longer theatrical run. Unfortunately, that pic is still in limited release and folks just aren’t rushing out to see it. It is still an awards season frontrunner, and once nominations are announced, it may see a bump in interest.
Next week sees a couple of limited releases including the highly buzzed-about The Whale starring Brendan Fraser and the Mark Wahlberg-fronted faith-based sequel Father Stu: Reborn. The first Father Stu got a limited rerelease this past weekend in anticipation of this follow-up. It didn’t crack the Top Ten, but then again, it’s already out on home video.
Did you hit the theater this weekend? What did you check out? What are you looking forward to?
