The week after Thanksgiving — like Labor Day weekend and the week after Christmas — is traditionally a time when the studios don’t even bother releasing worthwhile movies. Studios typically flood the box-office with movies during the lead-up to Thanksgiving, so holdovers generally extend their muscle through the first week of December. That was no exception this year, as the only two notable releases were movies most people have never heard of, and movies that most people will never hear of again after this weekend.
Incarnate was quietly released into 1700 theaters over the weekend. The Aaron Eckhart tech horror film was co-produced by two unlikely partners: Blumhouse Productions and WWE Studios. Blumhouse’s name tells us that it’s a microbudget film, so even if it barely puts a dent in the box office, it’s likely to recoup the investment. With a $2.2 million opening weekend, it’s nearly halfway to its production budget already, and even if it tops out at less than $5 million, it only takes one The Purge or Insidious sequel to pay for 20 of Jason Blum’s misfires. The bigger question is what’s happening to Aaron Eckhart’s career?
The other wide-ish release was the faith-based film Believe, which opened in around 600 theaters. The film, about a small-town business owner who tries to save the local Christmas pageant, barely made a blip, ending the weekend with less than $500,000. Christian films have had a pretty decent track record in recent years (Miracles from Heaven, the God Is Not Dead franchise), but this one is going nowhere.
Meanwhile, Moana led all holdovers, adding another $30 million this weekend, bringing its total since Thanksgiving to around $120 million. It’s holding slightly better than the other two all-time best Thanksgiving openers, Toy Story 2 and Frozen and should have good legs throughout the holiday season. The Lin-Manuel Miranda soundtrack has been on our house non-stop over the last 10 days. It’s as splendid as the film is gorgeous.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them also continues to hum along nicely. It will finish the weekend with around $17 million, pushing its cumulative total to around $170 million. It’s worldwide total has already surpassed $500 million, so the planned sequels are now all but inevitable.
Brad Pitt’s slow-but-gorgeous Allied held slightly better than I expected this weekend, adding another $7 million, bringing its two-week total to around $30 million. It will struggle to break even with the $85 million budget, but worldwide box-office should eventually bring it close.
Fourth place went to sleeper-hit Arrival (closing in on $75 million domestic), followed by Doctor Strange ($215 million overall), Trolls (closing in on $150 million), Hacksaw Ridge (close to $60 million), and the box-office dud, Bad Santa, which hasn’t yet crossed the $15 million mark after two weeks.
Among smaller releases, Manchester by the Sea is putting up big numbers. In only 156 theaters, it made $2.2 million over the weekend. Meanwhile, Natalie Portman’s Jackie made nearly $300,000 in only 5 theaters. Both of those films will continue to expand across the nation through December, and both will figure heavily into the Oscar’s race.
I’d be remiss, also, if I didn’t give one last shout-out to Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. It’s shedding theaters right now, so if it’s still in your city, run out and see it before it’s gone. It’s a terrific film, and fans of The Knick should see it for no other reason than Andre Holland’s superb performance in what may be the year’s most romantic scene. (If Edge of Seventeen is probably in discount theaters by now, so check that one out, too.)
