Box Office: ‘Christmas With The Chosen’ Drops 61% On Friday

In holdover news for Friday, Walt Disney’s Encanto earned another $2.2 million (29%) on its third Friday, setting the stage for a $9.6 million (-27%) weekend and $71.5 million 19-day gross. West Side Story opened so poorly on Friday that there is a halfway decent chance that Disney’s animated fable could threepeat at the top of the domestic box office, but this would be a clear case (for both movies) of rank being irrelevant. West Side Story topping the box office with $10 million is no more a victory than when Fight Club ended up on top (as opposed to third place in the earliest Sunday estimates) with a still-lousy $11 million. Likewise, Encanto held great this weekend, but $71.5 million in 19 days is still a lousy result for a big-scale Disney animated feature.

The good news is that it had a better third-weekend hold than the even Frozen (-28%). Unlike years past, Disney doesn’t have a super-big (or super important) year-end flick like The Force Awakens, Mary Poppins Returns or Into the Woods providing self-inflicted competition. However, the animated gem is arriving on Disney+ on Christmas Eve, a much-publicized fact that is surely cutting into the theatrical revenue. It’ll still need strong holiday legs to get past (random comparison for perspective) the $99 million domestic/$193 million global cume of Gnomeo and Juliet in early 2011. Encanto is still the biggest-grossing domestic-grossing toon since Frozen II, even if I expect Illumination’s Sing 2 to have a much easier time of crossing $100 million domestic. At least Disney’s Thanksgiving date for Strange World means the Mouse House isn’t giving up on original animated features.

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife earned $1.71 million (-37%) on Friday for a $6.47 million (-38%) fourth-weekend gross and $111.4 million 24-day cume. That’ll put it past the $109 million domestic cume of Ghostbusters II ($258 million adjusted-for-inflation). Once it gets past $123 million over the holiday, it’ll be past Dune ($106 million), Jungle Cruise ($118 million) and Free Guy ($122 million) in terms of halfway decent domestic runs. It should pass the $128 million domestic cume of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call ($128 million in 2016) but not the $135 million inflation-adjusted total. Still, again, when you only spend $75 million (and not $144 million), you can thrive from a “same as the last time” result. Meanwhile, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will pass $15.5 million tomorrow as Venom: Let There Be Carnage ends the weekend with $212 million.

MGM’s House of Gucci earned $1.22 million (-44%) on Friday for a likely $4.04 million (-42%) third-weekend gross. That gives Ridley Scott’s $75 million crime/business melodrama a $41 million 17-day cume. That’s no great shakes, but it’s easily the biggest-grossing straight-up adult-skewing drama in the last two years. House of Gucci is now likely to be the only awards season contender (give or take Dune) likely to be seen as at least a modest theatrical success. That may not turn it into a frontrunner (although it won’t hurt Lady Gaga’s Best Actress chances), but it’ll keep it in the conversation. In other MGM news, No Time to Die will pass $160 million domestic tomorrow. Once it passes $160.5 million, it’ll sit behind only the four previous Daniel Craig 007 films in unadjusted domestic grosses.

Last weekend’s miracle, Fathom Events’ Christmas With The Chosen: The Messengers, earned another $465,000 (-61%) for a likely $1.7 million (-61%) weekend in 1,450 theaters for a $13.1 million 12-day total. The feature-length installment of the popular streaming series (concerning the birth of Jesus from the point-of-view of Mary and Joseph) was obviously a one-week wonder, but one week was enough. Come what may, the faith-based drama/music concert is going toe to toe with the likes of King Richard ($14.4 million by tomorrow), The Last Duel ($10.8 million), The French Dispatch ($15.5 million) and Last Night in Soho ($10.1 million). It’s great that audiences are showing up for a rare circumstance where “this thing you love is now a movie” still qualifies as an event. But, dear lord, what has the streaming era wrought?

Meanwhile, Disney’s Eternals will earn $2.93 million (-28%) in weekend six for a $161 million domestic cume. The film is coming to Disney+ on January 12, and it’ll need a Christmas miracle to get past $171 million to avoid being the lowest-grossing MCU movie ever in inflation-adjusted domestic earnings. Yes, The Incredible Hulk earned $132 million in 2008, but that would be $171 million in 2021 ticket prices. Paramount’s Clifford: The Big Red Dog will have $47.4 million domestic tomorrow, while Focus Features’ Belfast will have $6.4 million domestic after 31 days in theaters. Meanwhile, MGM’s Licorice Pizza will have national sneaks in some major U.S. markets tonight in advance of its Christmas Day wide release. The acclaimed Paul Thomas Anderson flick will earn $175,000 (-28%) for a still-huge $43,675 per-theater average for a $1.1 million 17-day cume.