Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker continued its inexorable March toward the $1 billion mark globally on Christmas Day with around $35 million, which is less than what The Force Awakens earned on Christmas Day ($49 million), but it’s still the second most ever earned on December 25th. Moreover, between Christmas Day and Sunday, it’s likely to earn another $160 million, which would put it near the $400 million mark by Monday with big numbers over New Year’s week still to play with.
When The Force Awakens opened, it played number one to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle‘s number two for about a month, and the holiday season is shaping up similarly between Skywalker and Jumanji: Next Level, which earned an estimated $12.5 million on Christmas Day on its way to a 5-day $70 million haul and $185 million by the end of the weekend.
Little Women is running around third place, depending on how the estimates shake out. It looks like it earned around $7 million on Christmas Day and it’s looking at $24 million over the holiday weekend, which should put it in a good position to earn its $40 million production budget back over New Year’s week and add to it during the January awards season. Frozen 2 and Knives Out, meanwhile, are bouncing back in a big way over the holiday, as families return to theaters to see them again. It looks like Frozen 2 will likely earn around $24 million and Knives Out will reach $20 million over the five-day frame, ending the weekend with around $419 million and $113 million, respectively.
Two new entries, the animated Spies in Disguise and Adam Sandler’s Uncut Gems will likely fall into the sixth and seventh slots for the holiday weekend, building upon Christmas Day earnings of $5 and $6 million, respectively, on their way to around $21 million apiece over the five day frame.
Cats is still performing horribly, although even terribly performing movies can put up marginally decent numbers over the holiday week. It only earned around $2 million on Christmas Day, but over five days, it’s poised to earn $11.5 million to bring its total to $20 million, well short of the $80-$100 million price tag for the film. Finally, Bombshell — $10.5 million over five days, $17 million overall — and Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell ($6.7 million, $17.3 million overall) close out the top ten.
As it is the holiday, all of these numbers are estimates and may fluctuate over the next five days. We will have the final numbers for the holiday week on Sunday.
