Weekend Wrap-Up: Comprehensive and Abridged Edition
December 24, 2019
Its Christmas week and a lot of studios are closed for the holidays. This means we won’t have numbers for some smaller releases and international numbers are also more difficult to come by. Therefore, we are combining the three post-weekend columns into one.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker recovered a little bit from Sunday’s estimates to earn $177.38 million for the full weekend. While it is always better to beat estimates, this isn’t a large enough margin to really matter in the long run. Its reviews and its B plus are fine for a blockbuster, but aren’t going to help draw in more moviegoers, unlike The Last Jedi. Internationally, the film made $197.7 million in 52 markets to give it a worldwide opening of $375.1 million. It enjoyed the third-biggest weekend in December, the third-biggest day in December, and it is already the 21st biggest worldwide release in 2019. Granted, most thought it would open faster than this, but the film is, at worst, a profitable disappointment.
Jumanji: The Next Level was next with $26.51 million over the weekend for a total of $102.32 million after just two weeks of release. The film became the 27th film released in 2019 to get to the $100-million mark, and that certainly won’t be the last milestone the movie reaches. Internationally, it earned $33.50 million over the weekend, which is a little more than Sunday’s estimate, and its running tally sits at $211.43 million internationally and $313.74 million worldwide. This hold is more impressive, as it had no new openings. It is still well behind its predecessor’s final figure, but it has the Christmas / New Year week to add to its total, so it should get a lot closer before 2020 starts.
Frozen II held on better than expected, landing in third place with $12.98 million over the weekend for a total of $387.21 million after a month of release. Additionally, it pulled in $31.6 million internationally, pushing its totals to $717.2 million / $1.104 billion. Like Jumanji: The Next Level, this film is still behind its predecessor; however, it is rapidly catching up and it will surpass the original film domestically by the end of the week.
Cats bombed with just $6.62 million during its opening weekend, which puts it just below the Mendoza Line. Add in its reviews and its C plus from CinemaScore and this film isn’t going to last in theaters long. Amazingly, the film earned $4.14 million in its debut in the U.K., which isn’t too far behind its domestic opening. If you adjust for the relative size of the two markets, then this result is about $23 million here, which would have been a fine opening here for this time of year. Then again, Cats is a British musical set in London, so that might have given it an advantage there. The film opens in just over three dozen new markets this week, so we will have a better idea of how well it will do overall internationally this time next week.
Knives Out rounded out the top five with $6.50 million over the weekend for a total of $89.95 million after four weeks of release. Internationally, the film earned $5.97 million over the weekend for totals of $95.59 million / $185.54 million. It has over-performed so much domestically that its international total doesn’t seem quite as impressive by comparison. However, don’t be fooled; this is a strong result.
Bombshell just missed the top five with $5.11 million over the weekend for a total of $5.52 million, including a week of limited release. Its theater average isn’t bad, so I don’t think it will disappear from theaters in a couple of weeks. On the other hand, it didn’t do well enough to justify further significant expansion.
Moving on to the theater average chart, we find A Hidden Life in first place with an average of $49,369 in five theaters. Uncut Gems was right behind with an average of $48,286, also in five theaters. The only other film in the $10,000 club was Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker, which earned an average of $40,260. The only other new limited release we have numbers for is Invisible Life, which did merely okay with an average of $4,064.
We will be in a very similar situation next week when it comes to studios being closed and data being scarce, but once 2020 begins in earnest, things will return to normal.
- Weekend Estimates: Rise of Skywalker Falls from Projections, but Still Tops the Chart
- Weekend Box Office chart
- Biggest weekends at the box office
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- Friday Estimates: Star Wars is Going to Have a Green Christmas
- Thursday Night Previews: Skywalker’s Box Office Chances Rise
- Weekend Predictions: Will Star Wars Heat up the Christmas Week Box Office?
- Theater Counts: Rise of Skywalker Opens in 4,406 Theaters
- Theater average chart
- Thursday previews
- Friday final numbers
- Saturday final numbers
- Sunday final numbers
- Biggest weekends in December
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, International Box Office, Theater Averages, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen II, Uncut Gems, Jumanji: The Next Level, Cats, Knives Out, Bombshell, A Hidden Life, A Vida Invisível