Following a record breaking October, November got off to a strong start, mostly thanks to a massive debut from Bohemian Rhapsody and strong holds from October releases. While BoRap continued a winning streak for musicals, the other new openers disappointing in their debuts.
After nearly a decade in developmental hell, it all seems to be worth it for Fox’s Queen biopic, as it brought in $51.0 million, well above forecasts. It was even above my already-optimistic forecast. As expected, critical and audience receptions varied wildly, as critics disliked the shallow and sugarcoated portrayal of Freddie Mercury and mourned what could have been, while audiences were thrilled by what is essentially Queen’s Greatest Hits: The Movie. Audiences gave the Rami Malek-starring film a strong “A” Cinemascore, and it had a nearly even male/female split. The film played well to an older audience, which bodes well for its legs. The film also is also validation for the mid-range-budget film ($52 million budget), which is needed after First Man ($59 million budget) flopped. As for a potential domestic finish, $150+ is all but guaranteed, and it could even make a run at $200+ million.
Second place was The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which, as expected, became Disney’s latest live action flop with just $20.3 million off a rumored $120+ million budget. The fantasy-ballet movie received a discouraging B+ Cinemascore, which, coupled with a weak 34% on RottenTomatoes, suggests that word of mouth will not save this expensive dud.
Tyler Perry’s Nobody’s Fool, starring Tiffany Haddish, came in on the lower end of expectations with $13.7 million, good enough for third place. Still, the film only cost $17 million, so it should have no issue making a nice profit.
Fun fact: this weekend was the first time that the top three were all new releases since February 9-11, when the weekend was led by Fifty Shades Freed, Peter Rabbit, and The 15:17 to Paris.
Following four weekends in second place, A Star is Born finally fell down the chart, though not much. Despite direct competition in the adult-skewering-musical genre from Bohemian Rhapsody, the acclaimed Lady Gaga-Bradley Cooper drama had its best hold yet, dropping only 21.6% for $11.0 in its fifth weekend, bringing its total gross to $165.5 million. Star‘s odds of crossing $200 million are getting stronger by the day.
Halloween took a tumble in its first weekend since the actual holiday, dropping 65.5%, easily the largest third weekend drop among “horror blockbusters,” which isn’t too surprising, considering the holiday. The slasher still made $10.8 million as it crossed $150 million.
Venom continues to have shockingly strong holds, as it dropped only 26.1% for a $7.8 million fifth weekend and $198.6 million so far. It will be interesting to see if the superhero/antihero pic can surpass Solo ($213 million) or Ant-Man and the Wasp ($216 million).
Rounding out the top 10 are Smallfoot ($3.8 million), Goosebumps 2 ($3.7 million), Hunter Killer ($3.5 million), and The Hate U Give ($3.3 million).
Elsewhere on the chart, Amazon’s addiction drama Beautiful Boy expanded well, bringing in $1.3 million from 504 theaters. Look for the film to slowly but steadily expand as Timothee Chalamet starts to collect awards for his performance.
Amazon’s other release, the art-house/horror remake Suspiria also expanded well as it grossed $979k from 311 theaters, following its debut in two theaters last weekend. Amazon clearly learned from the mistakes of last year’s mother!, which was a similarly art house horror, but marketed as a mainstream thriller and opened wide to complete rejection from general audiences, who awarded it a rare “F” Cinemascore. Suspiria has been marketed more accurately, but I’m unsure of how wide it will go, considering how “difficult” and polarizing it is, not to mention its 155 minute run time.
Fox Searchlight’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? continues its promising run in limited release with $1.0 million in its third weekend. The Melissa McCarthy-starring biopic has been steadily building buzz and is becoming an Oscars dark-horse, and could go on an impressive box office run.
Gay conversion drama Boy Erased had a strong debut, making $207k from four theaters for the weekend’s best per-theater-average of $41k. This film has the potential to be a breakout hit, with its emotional story and star-studded cast. If Focus plays its cards right, this could be one of the biggest indie releases of the fall.
That’s it for this week. Next week has another three films opening wide: The Grinch, Overlord, and The Girl in the Spider’s Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story.
Film Central 