Saturday Update: There’s an early holiday present for Universal this morning as Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch bowed to $18.67 million on Friday, including Thursday night’s early shows, setting a new opening day record for Christmas films (besting the 2000 live-action Grinch‘s $15.64 million) and scoring the second biggest opening day for an animated film in November (trailing only The Incredibles‘ $20.5 million in 2004).
Early projections vary this morning, but appear to be on par with our pre-release expectations for a weekend in the upper $60 million range and still having an outside shot at besting Incredibles‘ standing November animation record of $70.47 million. Universal itself is expecting around $67 million as of today’s update, but if it follows the post-Thursday trajectory of Big Hero 6, a landing around $65 million would be more likely. Either way, this is a fantastic start for the film as it begins to settle into the lengthy holiday corridor that will attract families and kids through year’s end.
Easing 55 percent to $8.465 million yesterday, Bohemian Rhapsody withstood the loss of IMAX and PLF screens in respectable fashion thanks to positive audience reception. With $77.6 million domestically through eight days of play, its sophomore frame could net north of $28 million this weekend (Fox projects $29 million).
Debuting in third, Paramount and Bad Robot’s Overlord pulled $3.75 million on opening day. Weekend projections stand close to $9 million.
Capping the top four, The Girl In the Spider’s Web opened to $3.0 million with Sony projecting $8.5 million for the weekend, while Disney’s Nutcracker and the Four Realms added $2.373 million for an updated domestic total of $28.1 million. The latter’s sophomore weekend looks to hit around $9.5 million.
Early weekend estimates are below with updated studio numbers to follow on Sunday.
Early Weekend Estimates (Domestic)
FRI, NOV. 9 – SUN, NOV. 11
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch | $65,000,000 | — | 4,141 | — | $15,697 | $65,000,000 | 1 | Universal |
| 2 | Bohemian Rhapsody | $28,200,000 | -45% | 4,000 | 0 | $7,050 | $97,360,548 | 2 | 20th Century Fox |
| 3 | The Nutcracker and the Four Realms | $9,500,000 | -53% | 3,766 | 0 | $2,523 | $35,191,534 | 2 | Walt Disney Pictures |
| 4 | Overlord | $9,000,000 | — | 2,859 | — | $3,148 | $9,000,000 | 1 | Paramount Pictures |
| 5 | The Girl in the Spider’s Web | $8,300,000 | — | 2,929 | — | $2,834 | $8,300,000 | 1 | Sony / Columbia |
| 6 | A Star is Born | $7,900,000 | -28% | 2,848 | -583 | $2,774 | $177,910,388 | 6 | Warner Bros. |
| 7 | Nobody’s Fool | $5,900,000 | -57% | 2,468 | 0 | $2,391 | $23,636,108 | 2 | Paramount |
| 8 | Venom | $4,800,000 | -39% | 2,351 | -716 | $2,042 | $206,183,603 | 6 | Sony / Columbia |
| 9 | Halloween (2018) | $3,600,000 | -67% | 2,717 | -1058 | $1,325 | $156,569,845 | 4 | Universal Pictures |
| 10 | The Hate U Give | $2,125,000 | -37% | 1,108 | -399 | $1,918 | $26,760,883 | 6 | 20th Century Fox |
| 11 | Smallfoot | $1,600,000 | -59% | 1,318 | -684 | $1,214 | $80,401,553 | 7 | Warner Bros. |
| 12 | Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween | $900,000 | -76% | 1,519 | -1309 | $592 | $45,880,844 | 5 | Sony |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Can You Ever Forgive Me? | $1,250,000 | 21% | 391 | 211 | $3,197 | $3,384,977 | 4 | Fox Searchlight |
| 2 | Night School | $975,000 | -51% | 717 | -554 | $1,360 | $75,971,745 | 7 | Universal |
| 3 | First Man | $875,000 | -60% | 815 | -897 | $1,074 | $43,687,705 | 5 | Universal |
| 4 | Hunter Killer | $720,000 | -80% | 957 | -1763 | $752 | $15,196,151 | 3 | Lionsgate / Summit |
| 5 | The Old Man & The Gun | $460,000 | -55% | 395 | -370 | $1,165 | $10,220,835 | 7 | Fox Searchlight |
| 6 | Indivisible | $170,000 | -78% | 202 | -540 | $842 | $170,000 | 3 | Pure Flix |
| 7 | Incredibles 2 | $150,000 | -11% | 140 | -10 | $1,071 | $608,303,459 | 22 | Disney |
| 8 | Disney’s Christopher Robin | $70,000 | -50% | 122 | -43 | $574 | $99,118,784 | 15 | Disney |
| 9 | A Simple Favor | $55,000 | -16% | 127 | 25 | $433 | $53,450,267 | 9 | Lionsgate |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boy Erased | $700,000 | 238% | 77 | 72 | $9,091 | $973,164 | 2 | Focus Features |
| 2 | A Private War | $200,000 | 231% | 38 | 34 | $5,263 | $282,443 | 2 | Aviron Pictures |
| 3 | The Front Runner | $42,000 | — | 4 | — | $10,500 | $62,199 | 1 | Sony / Columbia |
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Friday Update: Universal reports that Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch came away with an estimated $2.2 million from last night’s first showings, which began at 6pm in around 3,200 locations. That figures comes in 29 percent higher than Zootopia‘s $1.7 million start in March 2016 and 57 percent higher than Big Hero 6 ($1.4 million) in early November 2014. With strong family business expected throughout the weekend, this represents an excellent start to the film’s run.
Paramount and Bad Robot’s Overlord grossed $900K from last night’s first shows in 2,330 theaters, more than doubling the $435K start of Hell Fest earlier this fall and matching the $900K start of Annihilation back in February.
Meanwhile, The Girl In the Spider’s Web posted a lukewarm $635K start from 2,620 locations beginning at 7pm last night. That figure stands 29 percent behind Annihilation and 47 percent behind Red Sparrow ($1.2 million).
As reported earlier, Bohemian Rhapsody is expected to easily top the latter two new releases for a second place showing this weekend.
Follow us throughout the weekend for continued updates.
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