Weekend Wrap-Up: Spider-Man Starts Strong as Christmas Holidays Begin
December 18, 2018
The weekend went according to predictions, more or less. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was the biggest surprise and it beat our prediction by barely more than $1 million at $35.36 million. The Mule was a distant second place with $17.51 million, but this is still a good result for its production budget / target demographic. On the other hand, Mortal Engines bombed. There’s no polite way to describe this result. The overall box office rose by 37% from last weekend, hitting $115 million. Unfortunately, this weekend last year, Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened with nearly double that by itself. 2018 was off by 58% when compared to last year. That would be a terrible result, even if there were a misalignment in holidays. Fortunately, 2018 still has a huge lead over 2017, up by 9.3% or $930 million at $10.96 billion to $10.03 billion and even if 2018 loses by this amount for the next two weeks, it will still end the year with a massive lead over 2018.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse opened with $35.36 million during the weekend, which is a good result, all things considered. It is a second-tier animated film from a studio, Sony, that hasn’t had a lot of success in the animation world, so they should be very happy with this result. They will be even happier if its legs can live up to its 97% positive reviews and its A plus from CinemaScore. The holidays will obviously help, as more and more school kids start their Christmas break every single day this week. However, there is a chance the Fanboy Effect will be at play here, as this is a comic book movie, plus there is a ton of competition coming out in the next seven days. We will know more once we start getting weekend numbers.
The Mule was next with $17.51 million, which is a great start for a film that cost $50 million to make, especially this time of year. Granted, its reviews are barely above the overall positive level and while it earned an A minus from CinemaScore, its word-of-mouth won’t be a major asset. The lack of direct competition, the target demographic, and the holidays will. It will blow past its production budget domestically and has a real shot at $100 million domestically.
The holidays are helping Dr Seuss’ The Grinch’s legs as it earned $11.75 million for a six-week total of $239.46 million. It will pass $250 million before Christmas and could hit $300 million domestically, if the Christmas break is particularly lucrative for the film.
Ralph Breaks the Internet landed in fourth place with $9.27 million over the weekend for a total of $154.15 million after four weeks of release. It should top the original at the box office, but unless the Christmas Holidays really help it out, getting to $200 million is not likely.
Mortal Engines is going to go down as one of the biggest bombs of the year. The film cost $100 million to make, but only pulled in $7.51 million over the weekend. Films normally have long legs during this time of year; however, that might not be the case here. When a theater owner books a film, they usually have to guarantee the film at least two weeks, so it won’t lose theaters this weekend. That said, theater owners will be shoving this film off to the smallest screen and might share screens with other films, which would further limit its ticket sales. I don’t blame them if they do do this. The reviews and its B minus from CinemaScore both suggest short legs. Any studio that is making a movie that even feels like a Young Adult adaptation will want to put it on hold. The market was over-saturated and will need time for demand to build again.
Once Upon a Deadpool just missed the top ten with $2.68 million over the weekend for a six-day run of $3.98 million. As a charity run, this is fine, but I don’t think any other studio is going to suddenly start recutting R-rated films for re-release.
- Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Comparisons
- The Mule Comparisons
- Moral Engines Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse 3D, Deadpool 2, Ralph Breaks The Internet, Mortal Engines, The Mule