By Chris Kavan - 12/01/21 at 05:13 PM CT
Thanksgiving is over and it turns out the MPAA Ratings Board isn't in a post-holiday food coma because we have some big, big films getting those ratings. Spider-Man, dinosaurs and a distinctively-masked killer all return - sure, it's all sequels, but my what sequels they are and should provide plenty to talk about.
On the box office front, both Encanto and House of Gucci proved to be hits for families and adults while the new Resident Evil film fizzled and Paul Thomas Anderson took the crown for biggest indie per-theater opening of the year with the coming-of-age drama Licorice Pizza.
Starting off at the box office, Disney's animated film Encanto took the box office crown with a $40.5 million opening. Notably, this is the first animated film to top the box office in the pandemic era of film. And while Encanto couldn't match the heights of Thanksgiving animated titans like Frozen II, Coco or Moana - it still managed to be a hit with critics (92% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences with a solid "A" Cinemascore. Hopefully this means families are enchanted enough with this magical tale to keep things going. Things are at least trending upward this year - though we'll have to see if the growing concern over this new Omicron variant has any impact in the coming weeks. With an additional $29.3 million overseas, the worldwide total for Encanto sits at just under $70 million.
In the second-place spot Ghostbusters: Afterlife scored $35 million for the holiday frame, bringing its total up to $87.5 million. Factoring in just the weekend, Afterlife was off 44.3% compared to last weekend, which is a decent hold in these times. The film added an additional $28 million from overseas, giving it a global total of $115 million to date.
Coming in third was another new entry, a film that toes the line between camp and drama, House of Gucci. With Lady Gaga earning raves and boasting an all-star cast including Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto and Salma Hayek this has been the rare adult-targeting film that has done well, opening to the tune of $22 million. While critics weren't swayed, giving the film a barely-Fresh 61% score, audiences were more than happy to support this colorful cast of characters. International audiences added in $12.9 million, giving the film a worldwide total of just under $35 million. Considering the recent fate of most adult-oriented dramas, this has to be seen as a big win.
In the fourth-place position, the MCU's Eternals brought in $11.49 million for the long holiday - and was down just 28.7% factoring in just the weekend. The cosmic heroes have thus far brought in $150.7 million, finally crossing that major milestone. It has done even better on the international front, bringing in a total of $217.8 million, giving the latest MCU outing a $368.4 million global total.
Rounding out the top five, the attempt to reboot Resident Evil with Welcome to Raccoon City, landed with a thud with just $8.8 million for the long holiday. With critics savaging it with a 24% Rotten and audiences likewise underwhelmed with a "C+" Cinemascore, the darker vision couldn't land either horror or the video game fans. I don't think we're going to be getting anymore Resident Evil attempts any time soon after these results. It also added $5.1 million from overseas, leading to $13.9 million global.
Finally, playing in just four theaters, Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza scored a $345,157 over the holiday, and a whopping $84,000 per-screen average for the weekend, easily the best of the year, tripling the previous leader C'mon C'mon. The film is going to roll out in a handful of theaters each weekend until is goes national on Christmas Day. It also represents the first film for young stars Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman (son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) and from the reactions, both stars look to have a bright future ahead of them.
Next week brings us the very weird looking Wolf - where a group of young adults who think they are animals attend a very special clinic. I don't think this is going to attract very much of an audience due to its nature, so I expect the box office to remain about the same.
That's only half the fun this week as the MPAA Ratings Update is full of major films - including one of the most anticipated films of the year (if you go by advance ticket sales) and the return of two other major franchises. Finally, something I want to talk about!
As I mentioned, according to advance ticket sales the upcoming MCU film, Spider-Man: No Way Home is the most anticipated film of 2021 - outpacing fellow MCU titles Black Widow and Shang-Chi. And why not? Tom Holland has proven to be a superb Spider-Man and his films have been some of the most enjoyable, mixing in drama with just sheer fun. Despite having some of the most iron-clad lockdowns, MCU spoilers have leaked plenty for No Way Home, which has Peter Parker begging Dr. Steven Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to undo the revelation to the world by former bad guy Quentin Beck aka Mysterio that Parker is in fact Spider-Man. But instead of making things better, something goes wrong and unleashed a multiverse of villains (and apparently also some other former Spider-Man actors) unto the MCU. That's right, everyone is back! Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx as Electro, Alfred Molina as Doc Ock and Thomas Haden Church as Sandman - and, despite repeated denials, it seems Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire will both reprise their Spider-Man roles as well. This is on top of the usual modern cast including Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Jacob Batalon and Angourie Rice. I have tried to avoid as many spoilers as possible (aside from the various character reveals) and based simply on the trailers, this looks to be just as fun as the previous Spider-Man films - perhaps a bit darker. Disney certainly thinks Holland is a good fit as they have already announced an additional trilogy for the actor - hopefully Holland likes it too as he's going to stick around for awhile. Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive
comments.
From one major franchise to another, we're going back to Jurassic Park - or perhaps Jurassic Park is coming to us in Jurassic World: Dominion. If you recall at the conclusion of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, a bunch of dinos got loose and were looking to crash our human world - and if T-Rex at a drive-in is any indication, it looks like they may do more than introduce themselves - they may be the new alpha species. Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Daniella Pineda, BD Wong, Justice Smith all return and they're joined by some familiar faces: Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Laura Dern are all returning as well. It's one, big happy dinosaur-fearing family and I'm sure things are going to get very interesting. Sadly, no extended plot has been released as of yet but you can't go wrong with dangerous, potentially humanity-destroying, ancient creatures running amok. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language.
From one major franchise to another... again! This time we're going from action to horror as Scream looks to terrorize another generation. And, hey, just like our previous two films, this one is also bringing back some familiar faces (I'm sensing a trend here...) as Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette all return for this new Scream which sees a killer targeting a bunch of young, pretty people who, surprise, surprise, all have a connection to the original survivors. Said young people include Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar and Mikey Madison. Will the killer turn out to be one of them? One of the original cast?! Someone from complete left field!?!?! Who knows at this point - but hopefully this will turn out to be just as smart and fun as the original - and better than the previous sequels. Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references.
That's what you get in this week's blockbuster MPAA Ratings Bulletin, but you can check out the full list below:
BLACKLIGHT
Rated PG-13 for strong violence, action and language.
CUANDO SEA JOVEN
Rated PG for some suggestive material, language and thematic elements.
FALLEN
Rated R for some violence.
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, some violence and language.
THE LAST MOUNTAIN
Rated R for some language.
SCREAM
Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references.
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive
comments.
SUNDOWN
Rated R for sexual content, violence, language and some graphic nudity.
THE VIRGIN OF HIGHLAND PARK
Rated R for language.
