Holiday Box Office: One Flop Finds New Life While Another One Sinks Further

The week between Christmas and New Year’s has historically proven to be a gift to underperforming movies, and box-office history is littered with examples. In 2011, for example, We Bought a Zoo opened with a mediocre $9 million, but thanks to Christmas week, legged it out to $75 million domestic. Also, in 2011, Steven Spielberg’s $135 million film The Adventures of TinTin looked like a bomb after opening with a $9 million weekend. It added nearly $50 million over the next two weeks and ended its run at $77 million (and nearly $375 million worldwide). In 2005, Jennifer Aniston’s forgettable Rumor Has It opened with $3 million and was thought to be a flop, but over Christmas week and New Year’s, the film added another $29 million and ended up with a respectable run.

The latest film to use the holiday week to revive itself is Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt’s Passengers, which opened with a tepid $22 million over its first five days. That’s not a great number for a film that cost $110 million. In fact, it’s the same number that Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising opened with over the summer before tapping out domestically at $55 million. In the last 8 days, however, Passengers has added $43 million to its domestic total and now looks poised to approach $90-$100 million domestically and should more than break even once worldwide grosses are accounted for. In fact, it looks like it grossed close to $60 million at the international box-office this weekend, so it may have already surpassed its budget. Not bad for a movie many were writing off a week ago as another expensive failure (that’s not to say that the film isn’t problematic).

Unfortunately, the holiday week isn’t a huge boon for every movie. Assassin’s Creed came out of its opening weekend with a paltry $10 million (against a $125 million price tag) and it’s not doing any better in its second weekend, putting up only another $10 million to bring its overall gross to around $41 million, which is a far cry from what the studio was hoping for, and with no box-office legs, Assassin’s Creed will be lucky to reach $60 million in North America. However, that’s a bigger number than Warcraft, which ended is run with $47 million domestically. Thanks to worldwide box-office appeal, however, Warcraft is the biggest video-game adaptation in box-office history with $433 million. Look for a similar international run for Assassin’s Creed, which is already putting up huge numbers in India, Germany, France, and Spain as it continues to roll out worldwide.

However, no movie has benefitted more from the holiday week than Rogue One. It added another $60 million over the four-day weekend, passed Captain America: Civil War for the second highest grossing movie of the year after only 16 days, and with $438 million in the bank, it is poised to become the year’s top movie, passing Finding Dory’s $486 million. Of course, The Force Awakens already had $700 million at this point last year, but look for Rogue One to cross the $600 million mark domestically before it’s all said and done, while worldwide grosses should easily put it over the $1 billion mark for Disney.

Illumination Entertainment’s animated film Sing has quietly been playing second fiddle to Rogue One during the holiday season. In its Wednesday to Sunday frame over Christmas weekend it put up a tidy $75 million, which it has since more than doubled. It will add another nearly $55 million over the four-day weekend to bring its total to close to $180 million. It’s a cute crowd-pleaser, and a nice alternative to kids who have already seen Moana, which came in fourth in its sixth week, adding another $14 million to bring its domestic total to $212 million (plus $150 million worldwide, so far).

Another of the week’s quiet hits has been Denzel Washington’s remarkably acted Fences, where Viola Davis out-Denzels Denzel. The Oscar contender added around $13 million over the four-day weekend to bring its total to around $33 million. Awards season should continue to keep it in play through February. Another awards’ season contender, La La Land came in 7th place, adding $12 million to bring its total to $36 million as it continues to add screens and expand across America.


In between Fences and La La Land at number six was Bryan Cranston and James Franco’s so-so comedy Why Him?, which has now matched its production budget of around $38 million, as it offers a mild diversion for those steering clear of sci-fi and Oscar contenders. Speaking of which, Manchester by the Sea came in at number nine, right below Assassin’s Creed, and with $30 million in its coffers so far, Manchester is also looking like an surefire Oscar contender.

There are several other notable movies still in limited release looking to breakout, chief among them Hidden Figures, which amassed a whopping $1.2 million in only 25 theaters, good for a $32,000 per screen average. Martin Scorsese’s Silence, 20th Century Women, and Mark Wahlberg’s Patriot’s Day are also playing well in limited theaters, while Ben Affleck’s Live by Night is struggling. All of those movies will open wide later this month.

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