After back-to-back weekends following Thanksgiving in which there were no new notable releases, Sony made a huge entrance with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, the animated Spidey flick from producers Phil Miller and Christopher MIller (Lord also served as a co-screenwriter).
Lord and Miller, of course, are the go-to folks for movies that seem like bad ideas when they are pitched — like The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street — but are turned into great ones, thanks largely to their screenplays. Likewise, audiences initially looked skeptically upon an animated Spider-Man film running concurrently along with the third iteration of a live-action Spidey in 16 years, especially an animated film in which Peter Parker would be killed off and replaced by not one but several Spideys spanning across multiple universes.
However, Lord and Miller, as always, created a massive crowdpleaser that not only thrilled critics (97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences, too, which gave it an A+ Cinemascore. The film also managed to earn $35.4 million at the box office, and while that doesn’t sound like an exceptional number for a superhero film, the week before Christmas has proven to be a great time to release crowdpleasers. Two years ago, Sing opened with $35.6 million the week before Christmas and sailed to $270 million domestic. Likewise, expect great word of mouth to keep Into the Spider-verse not only in theaters, but in the top five through at least the first half of January. That number is even more impressive given its relatively inexpensive $90 million budget. Once holiday sales and global box-office is taken into account, a sequel (or four) seems all but inevitable.
On the other end of the demographic spectrum, Clint Eastwood’s The Mule also performed very well, especially considering how little marketing there was for the film (it received only one trailer, released two months ago). Eastwood — in what ultimately may be his last starring performance — proved to be the ultimate draw here, as the film put up a solid $17.2 million and expects to be the go-to movie for the older crowds over the holidays. Audiences, who gave the film an A- Cinemascore, loved this one more than critics (64 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), and that’s great for The Mule since there are a lot more regular audience members than critics and they actually pay for tickets.
Familiar titles The Grinch and Ralph Breaks the Internet held down the third and fourth spots this weekend, and both continued to play well in spite of new competition. In fact, The Grinch dropped only 17 percent in its 6th week, scoring $12.4 million to bring its total to $240 million. It has another ten days or so before it’s pulled out of theaters after Christmas Day to break the $260 million earned by How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Ralph, meanwhile, added $9.5 million to bring its total to $154 million, as it eyes the $189 million earned by the original stateside (notably, Ralph is not playing nearly as well overseas as the original).
The Peter Jackson produced Mortal Engines sputtered in its debut. The $110 million film only eked out $7.5 million in its opening weekend, and so far, international audiences haven’t helped out much. Critics hated it (28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences weren’t to keen on it, either, giving it a B- Cinemascore. This one is going to be a huge write off for Media Rights Capital and Universal, which are likely to lose more than $100 million on the film. No holiday season is complete without at least one brick of coal in the stockings.
Holdovers took the rest of the top ten. Creed II earned $5.2 million and crossed the $100 million mark ($104.7 million). With $4.3 million, Bohemian Rhapsody hits $180 million to become the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, overtaking Mamma Mia!. Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald is nearing the end of its run, scoring $3.9 million to finally break the $150 million mark. With $3.8 million, Instant Family has now earned $60 million.
Finally, The Favourite added 400 theaters and broke into the top ten with $2.7 million, bringing its overall total to $6.8 million. One other notable, in at number 12, is the PG-13 rerelease of Deadpool 2, Once Upon a Deadpool, which has made $3.6 million now.
Moviegoers have a lot to look forward to next week. Mary Poppins opens on Wednesday, followed by Aquaman and Bumblee on Friday. Jennifer Lopez’s Second Act will seek to counter-program against the blockbusters while Steve Carell’s Welcome to Marwen may well prove to be the wildcard.
Sources: Deadline, Box Office Mojo
