Christmas Day is usually the biggest day for filmgoing, and the following week also tends to account for quite a bit of business. New Year’s, however, is the opposite. People either go out to celebrations or bars or have their own parties at home. (Or they go to bed at ten, like I did.)
2023 suffered from not having a MASSIVE tentpole released around the holidays like last year’s unstoppable Avatar: The Way of Water. Instead, over the post-Christmas week, the number one movie each day fluctuated between three releases. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was number one overall for Christmas weekend because it opened on Friday with Thursday previews. The Color Purple didn’t open until Christmas Day, which fell on a Monday. It made $18M on that day, making it the top draw.
Unfortunately, it seems that most people who wanted to see it saw it on Christmas, as it has dropped pretty rapidly. This left Aquaman and Wonka to duke it out for the top spot for the rest of the week. The Timothée Chalamet-led musical has reclaimed the #1 spot for the weekend. Musicals can be hit or miss during the holidays, with some just exploding and others — like West Side Story— crashing. But then there are those like The Greatest Showman that don’t make a huge splash but leg out and become more successful over time. Wonka looks to be following that pattern.
Earning $31.8M over the four-day weekend, its domestic running total now sits at $142.4M, tracking ahead of another holiday musical release, Mary Poppins Returns, but trailing behind the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (for now) which was a summer release.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom splashed at #2, earning $26.3M over the four-day weekend. Its domestic total now sits at $84.67M. That’s a far cry from the $1 billion+ that the first Aquaman made. This sequel doesn’t stand a chance of coming close to that, as comic book movies, in general, are hurting. This marks the final entry from the DCEU, a franchise that no one cares anything about anymore.
On the bright side, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is vastly outpacing both The Marvels and Shazam: Fury of the Gods, but it’s trailing behind The Flash, which wound up being a flop.
As mentioned, The Color Purple took a big nosedive after its opening. Over the weekend, it was surpassed by Illumination/Universal’s animated Migration, which had the lowest debut ever for an I/U release. ut it seems that families needed something to take the younger kids to.
The Color Purple wound up at #4. However, at this point, it is tracking ahead of the previously mentioned success of The Greatest Showman. We’ll have to wait and see if it can leg out as well.
The Glen Powell/Sydney Sweeney rom-com Anyone But You stuck around at #5.
Here is the Top Five:
- Wonka (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $23.95M/ 4-day $31.8M/ Total $142.4M/Wk 3
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $19.5M/ 4-day $26.3M/ Total $84.67M/ Wk 2
- Migration (Illumination/Universal) – 3-day $17.2M/ 4-day $22.3M/ Total $59.3M/ Wk 2
- The Color Purple (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $13M/ 4-day $17.7M/ Total $50M/ Wk 1
- Anyone But You (Sony) – 3-day $9M/ 4-day $11.5M/ Total $27.5M/ Wk 2
Migration is doing okay by being the only major kids’ animated movie in the market right now while Wonka is appealing to all ages.
The majority of films screening right now are aimed at older audiences. Though they didn’t crack the Top Five, honorable mentions go to the George Clooney-directed The Boys in the Boat, a true-life sports movie based on the 1936 University of Washington rowing team, which ended up at #6, The Iron Claw, a… er, true-life sports movie based on the Von Erich family wrestling empire, which took #7, and Ferrari, based on the famous car maker, which took #8. All three are in much more limited release than the blockbusters in the Top Five, so their performance is impressive based on their lower budgets and more serious subject matter.
While New Year’s is a dead time at the cinema, January is possibly even worse. One genre that tends to do well in the early winter is horror. Next weekend sees the release of Night Swim starring Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon. Will that be enough to entice folks out into the winter weather? We’ll have to wait and see.
Check back to find out if Wonka continues to reign or if there will be another shakeup.
