A lot of movie goers flocked to the cinema over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend but most of them blew right past the critically acclaimed Knives Out to catch up with Elsa, Anna and Kristoff in Frozen II. The Disney juggernaut has been enjoying a smashing year with their massive movie lineup and Frozen II has added an estimated $128 million over the five day holiday weekend to Disney’s money bin. It is not hard to imagine Disney CEO Robert Iger diving into that pile of cash and swimming through it like Scrooge McDuck. The animated sequel is probably going to break Thanksgiving day records for both three-day and five-day runs. We already know that Frozen II is the largest global opening for an animated film in the history of Earth as well as the fourth largest domestic opening for an animated movie.
Knives Out is a suspense film written by Rian Johnson. If that name rings a bell, it is because he was behind the divisive film, The Last Jedi. At first glance you might think that about $40 million in ticket sales for the five-day holiday is low compared to the numbers enjoyed by Frozen II but these are actually great results and better than distributor Lionsgate expected.
Another Disney film comes in third place this week. Ford v. Ferrari featuring Matt Damon and Christian Bale was produced by 20th Century Fox but the rights now belong to Disney since they acquired Fox earlier this year. I haven’t had a chance to see this one yet but I heard it is pretty good. I am definitely going to catch this one later.
Tom Hanks turned in a stellar performance as Mr. Fred Rogers (Yes, THAT Mr. Rogers) in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood which no doubt helped the drama bring in another $12 million or so this weekend.
Universal Studios came in fifth place with Queen & Slim bringing in over $15 million over the weekend. We had quite a few excellent movies come out this week and it is nice to see them perform so well over the holiday.
A while back I wrote an opinion piece calling for the abandonment of the Terminator film franchise after the dismal performance of Terminator: Dark Fate. I would like to briefly revisit that idea with an updated look at the movie’s performance versus its predecessor, Terminator: Genisys. Look at the visual below which comes from Box Office Mojo. Just look at it!
Terminator: Dark Fate ranked #16th this week at the box office and has only lasted for two weeks in the Top 10 charts. By contrast, Terminator: Genisys lasted four weeks in the Top 10 but fell short of becoming profitable with a gross of about $440 million against a production budget of $155 million according to Box Office Mojo. A standard rule of thumb is that a movie must make three times its budget to be profitable. As of this writing, Terminator: Dark Fate has grossed about $250 million against a budget of $185 million. I just don’t see this movie scoring another $300 million in theaters during its run. The people have spoken and there is little interest in Terminator films these days. Hollywood, let this franchise rest in peace.
The only big movie release this week will be the animated film Playmobil: The Movie. It is literally a film about Playmobil branded toys and was probably inspired by the relative success of The Lego Movie. Playmobil: The Movie will probably benefit to some degree for being the only big release but I wouldn’t expect it to be competitive against Frozen II. Jumanji: The Next Level will make its way to theaters on December 13th but it is pretty clear that most studios are giving the month of December a wide berth considering the fact that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will premiere on December 20th.
Did you see Knives Out or any of the new movies in theaters this week? Let us know on Twitter. We would love to know what you think of the latest films.
