Weekend Box Office: America gives thanks for Frozen II and Knives Out
As the collective stomach of America gorged itself on a cornucopia of gravy- and butter-slathered foodstuffs for Thanksgiving—followed by relatives quickly making excuses as to why they have to get back home as soon as possible, but they’ll definitely see you for Christmas—the nation’s multiplexes similarly offered a feast of cinematic options to cater to even the most discerning moviegoer. Of course, most people then ignored all those options in favor of Frozen II, but still, as Knives Out director Rian Johnson noted over the extended holiday weekend, it’s a good time to be going to the movies.
And Johnson himself has good reason to give thanks. Frozen II might have topped the box office again, bringing in $123.7 million over the five-day holiday weekend window (for a glacier-sized 10-day haul of $287 million, and a global tally above third-quarters of a billion dollars), but deconstructionist whodunit Knives Out outperformed expectations. The large ensemble project solved the mystery of how to bring in $41.7 million over turkey-day weekend, placing it in the top 20 of biggest Thanksgiving holiday openings ever. With excellent word of mouth, it should have some legs in the coming weeks, especially since your aunt is already asking if she should go see this “knives movies with the Captain America actor” she’s been hearing about.
The nation’s dads continue to insure Ford v Ferrari stays on its track in the top five, coming in third place with $19 million over five days, a drop of only 17% in its third weekend in theaters. A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood fared even better, dropping only 11% to secure fourth place with $17.3 million and an equal number of tears shed by everyone in the audience. And the top five was rounded out by newcomer Queen & Slim, which rode its hot-button premise to a $15.8 million debut and looked awfully good in the process, even if its content felt a little hollow compared to its aesthetics.
Look for next weekend’s box office to more or less mimic this week, as there’s no new wide releases outside of the execrable-looking kiddie pacifier of a film, Playmobil. (Yes, it’s a film based on the Playmobil brand of toys.) You can see the full breakdown of this past weekend’s returns at Box Office Mojo.