By Chris Kavan - 12/08/21 at 12:38 PM CT
Here's the laid back part of the show - both the box office and MPAA Ratings Board are apparently ready for a nap, because it was a quiet weekend as well as a quiet update.
Yes, December is upon us and the month is saving all the good movies for later on, because with no new major wide release, it felt like a ghost town out there. Leading the charge in first place, once again, Disney's Encanto fell just under 52%, adding $13.1 million and winding up with $58.3 million. That is a near-equal match to its international total of $58.1 million, giving it a worldwide total of $116 million. While still on the low end for Disney films in general, in terms of 2021, it is looking like Encanto will easily become the top-grossing animated film of the year.
Staying in second place, Ghostbusters: Afterlife dipped just a bit over 57%, with a $10.35 million weekend, raising its total to $102 million - crossing that $100 million mark in the process. As it stands, Afterlife will soon pass by Dune ($104.6 million) on the 2021 chart by next weekend. It has earned $49 million abroad which gives it a worldwide total of $145 million.
In third place once again, House of Gucci fell by 51.5% and added $7 million for a new domestic total of $33.86 million. While it's doing very well for an adult-oriented drama, it still has a long way to go to match up to its reported $75 million budget (to say nothing about its marketing). It's overseas total matches the $33 million from home and thus stands just over $67 million worldwide.
Coming in fourth was one of the Fathom events: Jesus Christ, Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers and it broke all previous Fathom offerings with a $4.28 million weekend - and nearly $9.2 million since opening on Wednesday. First-day ticket orders exceeded $1.4 million, leading Fathom to add additional theaters and thus lead to such a response. As seen in previous years, religious groups are more likely to but seats in big chunks for the right film and without much in the way of religious-leaning films this year, I'm guessing that is at least partly responsible for the results.
Rounding out the top five, Eternals is still hanging on after five weekends out, dropping 48.4% ending up with $4 million for the weekend and raising its total to $156.6 million. With nearly $228 million overseas, Eternals sits at over $384 million worldwide at this point.
This weekend brings us Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, which has already been earning accolades and also the sports drama National Champions.
I would have more to talk about this weekend... if more movies actually had solid release dates. As it stands, at least I have something to talk about as Ron Howard delivers up another solid, emotional drama.
Jumping right into things, said emotional drama is Thirteen Lives, based on the true-life rescue of a youth soccer team and their coach, from flooding Tham Luang caves in Thailand. This rescue took place in 2018 from June - July and drew a large international response involving tens of thousands of people and hundreds of divers. Howard tends to lean too far into sentimentality, but this kind of film is definitely in his wheelhouse. He has assembled an impressive case including Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Vithaya Pansringarm and Paul Gleeson. Something uplifting during these times might find a quite receptive audience. Rated PG-13 for some strong language and unsettling images.
I would love to cover more, but that's all I've got in this MPAA Ratings Bulletin, but you can check out the full list below:
ALL THE OLD KNIVES
Rated R for sexuality/nudity, violence and language.
CLERKS III
Rated R for pervasive language, crude sexual material and drug content.
HAPPENING
Rated R for disturbing material/images, sexual content and graphic nudity.
HERE BEFORE
Rated R for language.
HOLLYWOOD STARGIRL
Rated PG for some mild language.
HOME TEAM
Rated PG for crude material, language and some suggestive references.
THIRTEEN LIVES
Rated PG-13 for some strong language and unsettling images.
A WEEK IN PARADISE
Rated PG-13 for language and some suggestive material.
