By Chris Kavan - 12/15/19 at 08:30 PM CT
It was a stampede of epic proportions for Jumanji, as the sequel opened up at the top of expectations, opened bigger than Welcome to the Jungle and looks poised to be a big winner for Sony. On the other hand, Richard Jewell, following some controversy, suffered one of the worst openings for director Clint Eastwood. Black Christmas also couldn't find any reboot love despite an interesting premise. In limited release, both Uncut Gems and Bombshell provided some sparks, as both posted an impressive opening. With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker set to dominate a busy Christmas holiday, we'll see how both old and new films hold up.
1) JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL
It was a monster opening for Jumanji: The Next Level, which hit $60.1 million - better than the $52 million five-day opening for Welcome to the Jungle. That is on the upper end of what was predicted and bodes well for Sony - which seems to have a strong franchise on their hands. In terms of December openings, The Next Level landed in 13th place all time - as well as being the biggest December opening for Sony themselves. It earned an "A-" Cinemascore that means, even with Star Wars on the way, it should play strong well into the new year. The audiences was 56% male with just 29% over 25 - meaning it played well with families and those tween-teen audiences. It played younger than Welcome to the Jungle, which brought in 45% over 25. Welcome to the Jungle had obscenely good legs - actually beating Star Wars for the month of January after both films opened in December - and, as big of Star Wars fan as I am - the sequel could very well do the same. But that remains to be seen - what does not is its international haul, which already stands at $152.5 million. The film should easily top It: Chapter 2 ($211.5 million) to become the biggest non-Disney/non-comic book film of the year. It should also give Hobbs & Shaw ($759 million) a challenge for the same on the international front. All told, The Next Level is looking at a $300 million domestic total and approaching $900 million or so worldwide. While the competition is certainly going to be strong, The Next Level should more than be able to hold its own.
2)
FROZEN II
Frozen II finally had to settle for the second-place spot after three week on top, but don't feel bad, it's $19.1 million domestic performance, coupled with its $666 million overseas means the sequel crossed the $1 billion global mark ($1.032 billion to be exact). That makes it Disney's sixth film of 2019 to hit that mark, the third Disney animated film to hit that mark (along with Frozen and Zootopia) and is already the seventh-highest grossing animated film worldwide and the 10th best on the domestic front - it's $366.5 million coming in ahead of Inside Out ($356.4 million). It remains to be seen if Frozen II can catch the original Frozen ($1.276 billion) on the global front, but even if it falls short, it will be the biggest animated sequel of all time, as it should pass Minions ($1.1 billion) in due time. No doubt that it will continue to play strong here, with families driving the Christmas holiday, even as the competition heats up.
3)
KNIVES OUT
Rian Johnson's star-studded mystery also continued to play strong, dipping just 35% and adding $9.25 million to its total, which now stands at $78.9 million, crossing that $75 million mark in the process. It has already earned $162.2 million worldwide and has legs that should power it past Ford v. Ferrari ($184 million right now) in the global market. Could Johnson and his all-star cast perhaps sneak in to a few awards categories? Unknown - but I found this film both fun and refreshing outside of the standard superhero/sequel/reboot show that so often dominates the box office. If Johnson can continue to bring in some big names, maybe Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc could find himself in his own franchise. I would support that, anyways.
4)
RICHARD JEWELL
The first of the weekend's disappointing openings belongs to Clint Eastwood, whose biopic of Olympic park bombing hero-turned-villain has been dogged by claims that the characters of reporter Kathy Scruggs (portrayed by Olivia Wilde) was taken to task by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who filed a lawsuit for what they termed a gross mischaracterization of Scruggs, who died in 2001. While audiences still gave the film an "A" Cinemascore, it just wasn't very big - amounting to a mere $5 million opening - the worst opening for Eastwood as a director. The previous lowest was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which opened with $5.2 million back in 1997. The film was expected to open in the $9-$10 million range and whether it was due to competition or controversy or just disinterest, it never found the audience it needed. It's the latest under-performer for Warner Bros. following the likes of The Goldfinch and The Kitchen among others. With this kind of opening, and even more competition on the way, this is likely to earn less than $25 million in the long run.
5)
BLACK CHRISTMAS
The second disappointing opening this weekend belongs to Black Christmas which, despite its kick-ass female twist on the horror film, only scrounged up a $4.42 million opening. For Blumhouse, it's the second worst wide-release opening in 2000 or more theaters behind just Jem and Holograms ($1.37 million). About the best thing said about that result is that this is yet another low-budget horror film - sporting a mere $5 million budget - so even though it may not make much in the long run, it will probably wind up being mildly profitable even with such an anemic opening. The film was a bust with critics (43% on Rotten Tomatoes) and it followed the same with audiences, garnering a "D+" Cinemascore. Said audience was 54% female with 57% coming in age 25 or older. Given the premise of a bunch of sorority sisters turning the tables on their slasher stalkers, that audience was expected. Still, for a horror film, that score isn't unexpected and even with the holiday theme it's not likely to stick around for long.
Outside the top five: Bombshell opened to $312,100 in just four theaters for a nice $78,025 per-theater average ahead of its wide opening alongside Star Wars and Cats, so we'll see if the women who brought down Roger Ailes performs better than Richard Jewell when it goes wide.
In even more impressive news, Adam Sandler's Uncut Gems opened to $525,498 in five theaters, for an even better $105,099 per theater average. For studio A24, this represents the best limited opening, the 19th best live-action opening of all time and the second-best of 2019 behind Bong Joon Ho's Parasite. This one is set to go wide during Christmas week (alongside Spies in Disguise and Little Women) and we'll see if the electric opening adds a few more theaters to its count.
The only other milestone news was 21 Bridges crossing the $25 million mark with a $1.1 million weekend (10th place) and a new $26.3 million total. Sure, I'm sure they wanted much more, but it is what it is.
Next week Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brings the beloved saga to a close while we also get the musical Cats - which could be excellent counter-programming - or a huge whiff.
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