Weekend Box Office: ‘Krampus’ Shocked The World With A $16 Million Opening

It felt like the awards season doldrums going into this weekend, with Mockingjay 2 and The Good Dinosaur slowing down as the world waits for Star Wars, The Hateful Eight, The Revenant, et al. The only new release was a weird little comedy horror movie called Krampus starring Adam Scott and Toni Colette. Yet Krampus opened stronger than anyone expected, earning $16 million, on a $15 million budget. How surprising was this? BoxOfficeMojo had predicted $6 million. Variety put projections at $10-13 million. This season’s other Christmasy movies, Love the Coopers and The Night Before, managed only $8 and $9 million openings.

Krampus received only a B- Cinemascore and 64% on RottenTomatoes, so it probably wasn’t deafening buzz that put it over. It looks like we have to credit the marketing department, and/or the previously unknown market for Christmas horror movies. Maybe it was the horns? Horns are cool.

Elsewhere, Mockingjay 2 stayed at number one, bringing in another $18.6 million. A hit, but a disappointment relative to previous Hunger Games movies. But less so in international markets, where Mockingdeuce has grossed $296 million, passing the first Hunger Games‘ $286 million outside the US. Fascinating, right? Zzzzz…

Meanwhile, Creed added another $15.5 million in the US, bringing its total to $65 million, which is almost double its budget. I finally saw it this weekend, and now I can’t stop telling people “stop actin’ light-skinned.” I also enjoy that Hollywood made 1200 movies about white boxers and finally got around to making one with a black guy in it and now everyone’s stunned by its success. WEIRD.

In less good news, The Good Dinosaur may become the first Pixar movie to drop more than 60% in its second weekend, from an opening that was already Pixar’s second-lowest ever.

If estimates hold it will be the largest second weekend drop for a Pixar film ever, on the wrong side of the 60.3% drop Cars 2 had back in 2011. Difference is, after two weekends Cars 2 had already racked up $117.2 million while Good Dinosaur currently sits at just $75.9 million, and that’s including two extra days thanks to its Wednesday release. [BoxOfficeMojo]

The mostly-liked film received an A Cinemascore and is tracking a decent 76% recommended on RottenTomatoes, so that doesn’t really explain it. The trailers and marketing seemed very adult-skewed, maybe that strategy backfired? Or maybe it was just a sort of lukewarm response to a sort of lukewarm movie? Who knows. But this is the first time Pixar has ever released two movies in the same year, and it’s not like they’re running out of money, so, hey, why not experiment? (Sexually.)

Next week brings us In The Heart Of The Sea (Thor fights whales!) and The Big Short, but of course, it’s only a few more weeks until The Hateful Eight (you thought I was going to say Star Wars didn’t you. Nah.).

Film Weekend Per Screen
1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 $18,600,000 (-64%) $4,552 $227,112,000
2 Krampus $16,020,000 (-47%) $5,520 $16,020,000
3 Creed $15,540,000 (-47%) $4,539 $65,137,000
4 The Good Dinosaur $15,512,000 (-60%) $4,138 $75,951,000
5 Spectre $5,425,000 (-57%)
$1,910 $184,520,000
6 The Night Before $4,920,000 (-41%) $1,761 $31,988,000
7 The Peanuts Movie $3,525,000 (-63%) $1,208 $121,437,000
8 Spotlight $2,926,000 (-33%) $2,987 $16,632,000
9 Brooklyn $2,430,000 (-38%) $2,682 $11,210,000
10 Secret in Their Eyes $1,950,000 (-55%) $908 $17,241,000

[chart via ScreenCrush]

×