Box Office: ‘Encanto’ And ‘Ghostbusters’ Tops Hollywood’s Deadest Weekend

In holdover news for this infamously grim weekend for holdovers, Encanto topped again with $12.7 million (-53%) in weekend two, giving the 60th Disney animated flick a mere $57.6 million 12-day total. That’s just above the then-horrible $55 million Wed-Sun debut of Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur over Thanksgiving weekend 2015, and the drop isn’t any better (despite the much lower grosses) than a conventional Disney animated film. At this rate, The Good Dinosaur’s $127 million finish looks like a best-case-scenario pipedream, with a more likely finish between $95 million and $120 million (if it legs like Tangled, Moana and Coco). The film is doing a little better overseas, with a $20.7 million overseas frame (-30%) for a $33 million global gross.

That brings the film’s worldwide total to $116.1 million, which means at least it’ll pass the over/under $130 million likes of Raya and the Last Dragon, Tom & Jerry and Paw Patrol. By this time, Coco had earned $280 million worldwide while Moana had (via a slower overseas rollout) $177 million. Again, Encanto is a very good movie, but this is not a good gross here or abroad. Yes, Covid is a variable for sure, as is the much-publicized “Hey, it’ll be on Disney+ by Christmas!” factor. I’m more concerned about the pre-Covid reluctance by audiences to show up for non-sequel animated films, as evidenced by Abominable, Onward and now Encanto. Either way, Encanto will be waiting on a miracle just to crack $200 million worldwide.

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, earned $10.3 million (-57%) in weekend three for a $102.1 million 17-day total. It may not get much higher than Ghostbusters: Answer the Call ($126 million), but (with $145 million global thus far) could triple its mere $75 million budget worldwide. I’d expect a $90-$110 million Afterlife sequel in two or three years. MGM and Universal’s House of Gucci continued to be a rare Oscar season contender which audiences are bothering to see. Ridley Scott’s $75 million Lady Gaga/Adam Driver dramedy earned $6.76 million (-53%) in weekend two for a $33.628 million 12-day total. It earned an additional $14.8 million overseas for a $67.232 million global cume. It should earn around $110 million worldwide along with whatever it earns in Australia, Korea and Japan next month.

Walt Disney’s Eternals earned $3.9 million (-51%) in weekend five for a comparatively miserable $156.5 million 31-day cume. Yes, it passed Black Widow worldwide with $384 million global, and it might just crawl to $400 million by the end. But it will sell fewer tickets in North America than any previous MCU movie, below even The Incredible Hulk ($132 million in 2008/$171 million adjusted). Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City grossed $2.59 million in its second weekend. A 51% drop isn’t awful for a movie like this, but we’re still looking at a $13.1 million 12-day total, on par with the underwhelming $13.6 million Fri-Sun debut of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in January 2017. It has earned $25 million worldwide on a $25 million budget thus far.

Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Dune earned another $1.8 million (-13%) in its seventh weekend for a $104.573 million domestic cume. The low drop is on account of it returning to IMAX for a week. It opened in Australia this weekend with $4.8 million for a $382 million cume. For what it’s worth, it’ll need a miracle to get to $400 million global. Clifford will earn $1.76 million (-65%) for a $45.7 million 24-day cume. Call it a “successful disappointment.” Warner Bros.’ King Richard, which nabbed the Best Actor prize from the National Board of Review, earned just $1.206 million (-63%) for a $13.4 million 17-day cume. When WB slates an (almost) entirely IP-driven slate for theaters next year, we have only ourselves to blame.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will earn $900,000 (-43%) domestic and $9.8 million overseas for a $211 million domestic and $483 million worldwide cume. No Time to Die earned $800,000 (-53%) for a $159.4 million domestic total. It’s at  $764 million worldwide and this past Hobbs & Shaw ($759 million). It has earned $605 million overseas alone, more than the initial global totals of every 007 movie save for Skyfall and Spectre. Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast has earned just $5.833 million domestic, although Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch has stuck around and will cross $15 million domestic today. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza will earn $223,000 (-35%) in four theaters for a still-huge $55,832 per-theater average. That’s double the per-theater averages that The French Dispatch and C’mon C’mon earned on their opening weekends.

That may not mean anything for its mainstream potential, as it’s still a star-free, non-IP, period piece coming-of-age story, but it doesn’t hurt the film’s award season momentum. I’d like to think that MGM will expand the movie just a bit between now and Christmas, as the interest (relatively speaking) is clearly there. The $40 million Cooper Hoffman/Alana Haim dramedy has earned $743,000 in ten days. C’mon C’mon has earned $1.1 million, Spencer is at $6.8 million and The Last Duel is at $10.8 million. Here’s hoping West Side Story can join House of Gucci as the only awards contender (give or take Dune) actually seen in theaters by general audiences. If you live nearby a participating IMAX, A24 is holding a free The Tragedy of Macbeth screening.