Ghostbusters: Afterlife has a solid opening, while King Richard is the latest victim of HBO Max.
The weekend before Thanksgiving has, in recent years, seen the release of numerous franchise entries. Indeed, other than last year's Covid-scrambled release calendar, you have to go back to 2008 and the first Twilight to find a pre-Thanksgiving Friday that did not feature a sequel, prequel, or spin-off. So this week's newcomer, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, fits the pattern quite well. And if its opening is somewhat muted compared to the franchise cogs of the past, well, most of them weren't follow-ups to 37-year-old movies and weren't released while a pandemic was still raging.
Afterlife debuted to a lively $44 million, exceeding expectations. It's take almost equaled the much-reviled 2016 reboot (which took place in a different continuity than this one), and is getting better word of mouth. With the upcoming release calendar looking relatively light until mid-December, Afterlife has some room to run, meaning there's a good chance this should finish above the 2016 version's $128.4 million final, not to mention 1989's Ghostbusters II $112.5 million (of course, $112.5 million in 1989 is much greater than $112.5 million in 2021).
Ghostbusters largely dominated moviegoing this weekend, finishing with roughly four times the gross as #2 Eternals. The MCU cog continues its fairly quick fade, taking in $11.1 million, bringing its total to $136.1 million. With sky-high expectations for Spider-Man: No Way Home next month, this seems almost certain to finish as the year's lowest-grossing MCU entry, though it will be somewhat surprising if it doesn't end up in the year's overall Top 10.
Clifford the Big Red Dog had a 51% plunge in its second week, a surprise given the lack of family competition and the fact the film opened on a Wednesday, meaning that its opening weekend was already somewhat diluted. The kiddie comedy took in $8.1 million for a 12-day total of $33.5 million. That's enough to get Paramount to start talking sequel. We'll see how it does over Thanksgiving, when kids are out of school, but Disney has arrived to provide direct competition.
Despite strong reviews and the presence of Will Smith, King Richard is the latest underperforming Warner title, opening to a meager $5.4 million. Smith's troubles with getting anyone to turn out to see him in anything but a franchise entry continue. The good news for this film is that, as an awards player, it might be able to pull off decent legs, though other awards contenders are having unusually fast fades.
Dune has been out a month, and has yet to top $100 million, recalling the struggles of the only movie that, so far has broken that mark despite being available day and date for free for customers of a streamer, Godzilla vs. Kong, which took 12 weeks to top the number. Dune, which brought in $3.2 million for a total of $98.3 million, will top that number after 6 weeks of release, but even with that success, those grosses emphasize the foolishness of releasing films on streaming day and date, particularly since people are now willing to go back to the theater.
Longrunning holdovers Venom: Let There Be Carnage and No Time to Die continue to bring in audiences, taking in $2.9 and $2.8 million, respectively. Venom is now up to $206.6 million and No Time is at $154.8 million. The French Dispatch took in $1 million, bringing its grosses to $13.3 million.
After several weeks in which the entire Top 10 hit at least $1 million for the weekend, only 8 films were able to exceed that total this time around. Just below the 7-figure mark were Belfast and Ron's Gone Wrong. The former now has a 10-day total of $3.4 million, while the latter stands at $22.2 million.
As usual on Thanksgiving weekend, the major newcomers hit theaters before the holiday. Likely coming in #1 for the weekend is Encanto, Disney's newest, about a young woman from a magical family who doesn't have any gifts herself, but who learns she may be the only one who can save them all. Competing with Ghostbusters for second will be House of Gucci, a real-life soap opera starring Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, and Salma Hayek as scheming members of the Italian fashion family. Also hoping to make a bloody splash is Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City, a prequel/reboot of the long-running horror franchise, the first without star Milla Jovovich, which goes back to the very beginning of the zombie outbreak. Could Ghostbusters take #1 for a second week, or could House of Gucci come out on top, or will Encanto will as expected? We'll find out next week. Until then Happy Thanksgiving (or, outside the U.S., Happy Thursday)!
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