OPENINGS: Hiyao Miyazaki’s THE BOY AND THE HERON (GKids) exceeded expectations and set a high-water mark for its filmmaker and for non-franchise Japanese animation with a $12.8M launch. The film will lose its Imax screens next week and faces challenges from other family-oriented films, but if word of mouth is strong and it can hold onto its theaters, it may play well through the holidays. The film also has $84.2M internationally, $56.2M of that from Japan.
A one-weekend run of WAITRESS (Bleecker Street/Fathom) earned $2.6M from 1214 theaters.
The arthouse film EILEEN (Neon) expanded to a barely-wide 532 theaters with an unexceptional $600K.
THE OATH (Freestyle) opened in 640 theaters with a $300K result.
A pair of upcoming US holiday releases began their campaigns overseas. WONKA (Warners), which opens here next week, brought in a solid $43.2M in 37 markets. MIGRATION (Illumination/Universal), landing in the US on December 22, found $6.5M in 18 territories.
HOLDOVERS: THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES (Lionsgate) continued to benefit from being the only Hollywood franchise title around, down 34% to $9.4M in its 4th weekend. It could reach $175M in the US, and has $122.7M overseas after an $11M weekend.
GODZILLA MINUS ONE (Toho) had an exceptional hold, especially considering that it’s a subtitled genre movie. It dipped just 27% to $8.3M, and while it also faces the challenge of holding onto theaters, it could hit $50M in the US on a production cost reported at $15M. Overseas, it has $26.6M, almost all of it from Japan.
TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) lost 21% to $6.2M in its 4th weekend, on its way to $100M in the US. It’s similarly at $90.7M overseas after a $2.7M weekend in 73 markets.
WISH (Disney) is holding well after its dismal opening, down 31% to $5.3M in its 3rd weekend. The holidays will help, but it still may struggle to pass $75M in the US. With a few territories still to open internationally, it has $56.1M after a $12.1M weekend in 37 markets.
RENAISSANCE (Variance/AMC Theaters) plunged 77% to $5M, and may not see $50M in the US. (The Eras Tour concert film dropped 64% in Weekend 2, although that number would likely have been worse if Thursday night shows had been announced before the last minute.) The weekend international numbers haven’t been released.
NAPOLEON (Apple/Sony) fell 42% to $4.2M in its 3rd weekend. In the US, it’s on track for around $65M, just about the same as its Apple prestige stablemate Killers Of the Flower Moon. But overseas, Napoleon is far stronger with $117.7M after a $16.1M weekend in 64 markets, while Flower Moon has only reached $88.6M.
Indian-language films tend to be front-loaded, and ANIMAL (Cine) fell 65% to $2.3M. Still, a $15M+ total in the US would be worthy of note. International is being reported at $4.2M.
THE SHIFT (Angel) dropped 50% to $2.2M and might reach $15M in the US. No overseas openings as of yet.
SILENT NIGHT (Lionsgate) was down 43% to $1.7M, and may not get much past $10M in US theaters. Overseas release is negligible thus far.
Nearing the end of its dismal run, THE MARVELS (Marvel/Disney) shed 47% to $1.3M, and is unlikely even to hit $90M in the US. The international total is $116.4M.
THANKSGIVING (TriStar/Sony) shed 54% to $1.2M, heading for $35M in the US. Overseas, it has $11.8M after a $2.5M weekend in 55 territories.
LIMITED RELEASE: POOR THINGS (Searchlight/Disney) started strong with a $72K weekend per-theater average in 9 arthouses. ORIGIN (Neon) began a 1-week Oscar-qualifying run with a $58K average at 2. ANSELM (Janus) averaged $22K at 2.
NEXT WEEKEND: As noted, the Hollywood holiday season kicks off with Wonka. Limited releases include THE ZONE OF INTEREST (A24) and AMERICAN FICTION (MGM/Amazon).
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