(Continuing the catch up)
Back in 2015, The Hunger Games franchise wrapped up its run after four massive blockbusters. It probably ended one movie too late, as the decision to split the franchise's final book into two led to a final installment that had by far the lowest opening and lowest gross in the franchise, despite being the most expensive film in the series. The franchise seemed over, much to Lionsgate's chagrin, at least until 2020, when author Suzanne Collins published a prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
The rights to the book, which covered a teenage future President Snow and his involvement in an early edition of the games, was quickly snapped up by Lionsgate, which hadn't found a franchise anywhere near as lucrative in the years since. Arriving the weekend before Thanksgiving, the same weekend the last three films had opened. And while The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes opened well below any of the previous films, as it arrived to $44.6 million, it is a different box office world than it was in the mid-teens, and has none of the actors and only one major character from the main franchise. Even pre-pandemic, an even more popular franchise, Harry Potter, found that audiences wouldn't automatically show up to see anything in the Wizarding World, and Lionsgate is learning the same lesson. That said, this one is getting better word of mouth than any of the Fantastic Beasts films did, and with the holiday season coming up, this one has a chance for some decent legs.
The Trolls franchise might be one of the more snakebit of the recent animation blockbusters. The first film did decent business in 2016, but still underperformed. The second was scheduled to open in April 2020, and rather than endlessly postpone the film as nearly every major studio film scheduled in the first five months of the pandemic or so would undergo, Universal made the decision to keep the film's opening date, releasing it to the handful of drive-in theaters currently open, but primarily releasing it through video on demand for the millions stuck at home to enjoy on their couch. For the third film, Trolls Band Together, the franchise returns to theatrical exclusivity, where it opened to a middling $30 million, well off the opening of the first Trolls 7 years earlier. That's about what Elemental and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opened to over the summer. It is possible that Trolls could have legs as good as either of those movies, but Trolls problem is that Disney has competing animated film Wish already open, which, even with the wide-open legs of the holiday season, could limit just how popular Trolls could end up being.
The success of Halloween in 1978 led to an endless series of slasher films set around holidays and other important dates in the late 70s and early 80s. It was memories of such films that led Eli Roth, when invited to contribute a fake trailer to Quintin Tarantino's and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse in 2007, to make it center around a slasher stalking a town over Thanksgiving. 16 years later, Roth finally expanded the idea of a masked killer stalking a small town in Massachusetts in late November to feature film length, with Patrick Dempsey playing the local sheriff. The $10.3 million start is almost exactly what Talk to Me opened to back in July, but it's highly unlikely that Thanksgiving, with its built-in expiration date, will be able to match that film's gross.
After a dismal opening last weekend, The Marvels was hoping that perhaps the pre-Thanksgiving weekend would provide it with some decent legs. No such luck, as the Brie Larson-led film plunged nearly 80% to $10.1 million, for a ten-day total of $65 million. It seems very likely now that this will be the first MCU film to not hit $100 million, a black eye on what has been the defining cinematic franchise of the last 15 years.
The two biggest films of the fall, Five Nights at Freddy's and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, hold down positions #5 & 6. The family-somewhat-friendly horror film took in $3.6 million for a total of $132.7 million and the family-somewhat-friendly concert film made $2.8 million for a total of $175.7 million.
The Holdovers continues the rather distressing trend of more arty films having their grosses fall while they up the theater count. Despite now playing in nearly 1,500 theaters, the dramady saw a 16% decline to $2.7 million, for a total of $8.4 million. So far, it's tracking pretty closely with Sideways, the last collaboration between Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne, but there's a world of difference between how films were released in 2004 and how they're released in 2023, to the point where the idea that The Holdovers could get anywhere near Sideway's $71.5 million seems pretty ridiculous.
Opening in 8th is Next Goal Wins, the long-delayed soccer comedy from Taika Waititi, which wrapped production in early 2020, only to be delayed both by the pandemic and then by the decision to reshoot large chunks of the movie to replace original co-star Armie Hammer with Will Arnett. Critics were fairly consistent in the opinion that they didn't really need to bother releasing it at all, and audiences agreed, as the film could only muster up a $2.5 million start.
Rounding out the Top 10 are two Oscar contenders. Priscilla scored $2.3 million for a total of $17 million, and Killers of the Flower Moon took in $2 million for a total of $63.6 million.
Outside the Top 10, Tiger 3 and Journey to Bethlehem each made about $1 million. Their 10-day totals are $4.5 million and $4.3 million, respectively.
Thanksgiving always brings a feast of new releases. Hoping and praying for the top spot is Wish, the latest from Disney Animation. Essentially Disney's 100th Anniversary: The Movie, this musical follows a teenage girl (Oscar winner Ariana DeBose) after a star falls from the sky after she makes a wish. It will be up against Napoleon, Ridley Scott's epic biopic of the French emperor, with Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix in the title role. Despite the obvious Oscar baitiness of the film, buzz has been surprisingly quiet. Also going wide is the British comedy-drama Saltburn, about a poor kid (Barry Keoghan) who gets invited to his rich friend's family estate for the summer, where things happen. Will Wish itself to the top spot? Will Napoleon conquer the box office? Or could there still be Hunger for Songbirds and Snakes? We'll find out next week.
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