Weekend Wrap-Up: Nothing Strange about the Doctor’s $85.06 million Opening Weekend

November 7, 2016

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange’s opening weekend was off by 0.069% when compared to our prediction. I think that gives us reason to brag. Both Trolls and Hacksaw Ridge beat expectations by a relatively significant margin. Overall, the weekend box office rose 115% from last weekend to $191 million. That’s 18% more than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2016’s lead over 2015 increased to 5.6% or $490 million at $9.28 billion to $8.79 billion. If 2016 can maintain this lead until Rogue One comes out, then 2016 will win in the end.

Doctor Strange opened with $85.06 million over the weekend, making it the 14th film out of 14 Marvel Cinematic Universe films to earn first place at the box office. It also earned 90% positive reviews and became the 13th of the 14 films to earn a CinemaScore rating in the A range. It earned A exactly. (Only the first Thor movie failed to earn at least an A- and it came close with a B+.) With no major competition opening next week, the film should earn first place again with ease. It is on pace to earn anything from the low $200 million range to just a hair above $300 million. We will know more over the weekend.

Trolls opened in a solid second place with $46.58 million. Combine this great start with solid reviews and an A from CinemaScore and the film will likely have strong legs. On the downside, it does have direct competition opening on Thanksgiving Weekend, but that will be too late to stop it from hitting $100 million.

Hacksaw Ridge was a distant third with $15.19 million over the weekend. It has an older target demographic and nearly Oscar-worthy reviews, not to mention an A from CinemaScore, so it should have strong legs. $50 million is the low end of expectations at this point and if it can merely match that internationally, then it will break even sooner rather than later.

Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween fell from first to fourth with $7.73 million over the weekend and $64.92 million after three weeks of release. The film could earn north of $80 million by the time it is done, which means it will fall short of Madea Goes to Jail as the biggest hit the Madea franchise. Also, assuming it didn’t cost more to advertise than it did to make, it will break even just on its domestic box office numbers. Even if it did, it will break even early in its home market run. It is a rare bright spot for Lionsgate this year.

Inferno fell to fifth place with just $6.17 million over the weekend for a total of $25.97 million after two weeks of release. It likely won’t get to $40 million domestically, but its international numbers are high enough to nearly cover its entire production budget and it isn’t done on its international run just yet.

- Doctor Strange Comparisons
- Trolls Comparisons
- Hacksaw Ridge Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Inferno, Trolls, Doctor Strange, Hacksaw Ridge, Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween, Madea, Marvel Cinematic Universe