Thanksgiving Box Office +12% Over 2014, Boosted By ‘Mockingjay 2’, ‘Good Dinosaur’ & ‘Creed’ – Sunday AM Final Update

6TH UPDATE, Sunday 10:30 AM Final: It was a great Thanksgiving indeed at the box office. Total weekend ticket sales as of this morning are being estimated at +12% over last year with $183.1M, which would make it the fourth best FSS post Turkey frame after 2013 ($208M), 2012 ($207.8M) and 2009 ($186.3M).

Even though The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 didn’t generate as much as Part 1 did over the 5-day Thanksgiving holiday, $75.75M to $82.7M, two out of the three holiday wide entries overpowered those from a year ago. Last year at this time, DreamWorks/Fox’s The Penguins of Madagascar and Warner Bros./New Line’s Horrible Bosses 2 didn’t wow with respective 5-day grosses of $35.4M and $22.8M, but this year, Disney and Warner Bros. both lured families away from shopping and feasts with their respective titles Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur which grossed $55.6M over five days, and MGM/New Line’s Creed which turned a new leaf in the Rocky franchise with a Wednesday through Sunday gross of $42.6M. Distributors with holdovers and specialty titles were also in great spirits, except for 20th Century Fox’s Victor Frankenstein which completely tanked with an opening of $2.35M over FSS and $3.4M over 5-days.

carol-movie-images-cate-blanchett-rooney-mara-
carol-movie-images-cate-blanchett-rooney-mara-

With all the tentpole action going on at the multiplex, specialty films weren’t overlooked in the least by moviegoers. Weinstein Co.’s second weekend of Carol, hot off six Independent Film Spirit Award nominations, drew $203K at four locations over FSS, which is more than Focus Features’ The Danish Girl‘s opening of $185K at four NYC and LA playdates. Carol‘s -20 dip isn’t that far from the second weekend decline of last year’s The Imitation Game.

Spotlight poster
Spotlight poster

Spotlight

amassed $12.3M after breaking 800 playdates in its fourth weekend, with Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn emulating a similar expansion during the holiday frame with a total running cume of $7.3M. Last Thanksgiving, Focus arthouse release The Theory of Everything upped its theater count past 800 venues during its fourth sesh, and raised its total running cume to $9.5M (final domestic B.O. $35.9M), which gives you an idea of how Spotlight and Brooklyn are legging it out. Bleecker Street’s Trumbo, after expanding from 47 theaters to 616, posted a near five-fold percentage increase over last weekend. The Dalton Trumbo biopic’s total stands at $2.57M through four weekends.

Good Dinosaur
Good Dinosaur

The Good Dinosaur

came as an excellent appetizer for Disney before its main course Star Wars:The Force Awakens arrives on Dec. 18. Similar to its Thanksgiving 2010 entry Tangled which posted solid 3-day ($48.8M) and 5-day ($68.7M), The Good Dinosaur is expected to keep a big footprint through Christmas and New Year’s, maintaining a hold just north of 2,500 playdates with a multi-generational turnout, despite the arrival of the J.J. Abrams film. The second Pixar title of this year skewed mostly female at 56% per PostTrak, with 13-17 year olds making up 27% of the crowd with 51% under 25. While dinosaurs are typically a boy thing, girls seem to be warming and recommending the Pixar title too, in near equal proportion. In addition, matinee crowds didn’t taper into the evening, with auditoriums remaining full. Beamed Disney distribution chief David Hollis over the film’s A CinemaScore, “Credit is due to Pixar and their consistency for putting movies out in the marketplace. They have a 20-year streak for delivering movies in the A CinemaScore range and from a consistency standpoint, that’s above and beyond any comparison brand wise.”

Originally, The Good Dinosaur was scheduled to come out on May 30, 2014. But in September 2013, Pixar pushed the movie to this weekend in the wake of director Bob Peterson’s departure from the project, and the fact that the studio was going to completely reimagine

dinosaur subway
dinosaur subway

the film. Disney dropped the teaser trailer back in June on Yahoo with a complete trailer release in July. At D23 in August, there was a special presentation by GoodDinosaur director Peter Sohn, producer Denise Ream and John Lasseter. Extensive synergies included an extended sneak peek of the film at Disneyland and Walt Disney World and — for the first time — on all four Disney cruise ships. There was a primetime stunt during ABC’s The Muppets, as well as plugs across Disney Channel, Disney XD, ESPN, ABC Family, Radio Disney, Disney Stores, Disney Movie Rewards, D23, Fusion, and Starz. Promo partners included Subway, Cox Cable, Hunts, SunMaid, Barnes & Noble, Banquet, and Wyoming Tourism. Pixar president Jim Morris embarked on an overseas tour, presenting footage in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, and Russia, while the pic’s other filmmakers traveled to Argentina, France, Mexico, Spain, UK, Brazil, Korea and Japan. There was also some unique field outreach with “The Pixar Artist” tour, featuring Pixar staff who traveled to 74 colleges, as well as the “Meet Arlo and Spot” tour featuring a 25’ Arlo and Spot photo op in 11 markets.

Even though Warner Bros. has a 37.5% stake in MGM/New Line’s Creed, it’s as though Christmas came early for the Burbank studio. After a long string of misfires including The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Our Brand Is Crisis, and Pan, along comes Creed, which will likely be the studio’s first $100M-grosser since May’s San Andreas (another New Line title) and Mad Max: Fury Road. Older men wouldn’t

Creed05720.dng
Creed05720.dng

miss out on this new Rocky-inspired tale which follows the boxing son of Rocky rival Apollo Creed. Rentrak’s PostTrak shows 63% men showing up, with 66% over 25. 85% of the crowd graded it excellent or very good, while CinemaScore audiences gave Creed an A title belt. African American and Hispanic markets overindexed as expected. As Warner Bros. domestic distribution EVP Jeff Goldstein points out,”When you look at the business in medium and small town theaters with a film like this, they typically tell you how long you’re going to be around, and this is pretty significant. Everything came together for this film: brilliant filmmaking thanks to Ryan Coogler, brilliant performances from Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, as well as a brilliant marketing campaign and the right release date.” Warners is going to hold Creed as wide as they can into January. A decent start as we enter a slowdown period at the B.O. prior to Force Awakens.

And what do you do with a slow-walking monster like Victor Frankenstein? Even with 12% more business over this holiday weekend, if there was a prime time to grab cash, this was it. I understand that one of the challenges for this film was that it could never clearly define its audience,

victor frankenstein
victor frankenstein

and that was after numerous tests. In the movie world we live in, if you don’t have a clearly defined audience for your wide release, you’re toast. However, Fox has always shown that they can make moolah from mincemeat overseas. We’re not glossing over failure in this analysis, but given the one-two-punch of British stars James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe, Victor Frankenstein could make good in foreign theatrical, TV and home entertainment. In the film’s greenlight, the emphasis was that foreign was always going to save the day. That might be the case as Victor seized $10M overseas, ranking No. 2 or 3 in a number of territories like Russia, Mexico and Brazil, which is far better than its place on the stateside charts. Victor aside, Fox had bragging rights with three of its titles in the top 10 — the most of any studio — with decent holds from The Peanuts Movie, The Martian and an expanded 230% surge from Searchlight’s Brooklyn as it crossed from arthouse to multiplexes with an A grade from audience polling.

The top 12 films per studio-reported figures as of Sunday AM for the period of Nov. 27-29:

1). The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (LGF), 4,175 theaters (0) / $20.8M Fri. (+100%) / 3-day cume: $51.6M (-50%) /5-day cume:$75.75M /Total cume: $198.3M/Wk 2

2). The Good Dinosaur (DIS), 3,749 theaters / $15.1M Fri. (+130%) / 3-day cume: $39.2M /5-day cume: $55.6M /Wk 1

3). Creed (MGM/New Line/WB), 3,404 theaters / 3-day cume: $30.1M /5-day cume: $42.6M /Wk 1

4). Spectre (SONY), 2,940 theaters (-719)/ $5.2M Fri. (+94%)/ 3-day cume: $12.8M (-15%)/5-day cume: $18.2M/ Total cume: $176.1M /Wk 4

5). The Peanuts Movie (FOX), 3,006 theaters (-665)/ 3-day cume: $9.7M (-27%)/5-day cume:$13.6M/Total cume: $116.8M /Wk 4

6). The Night Before (SONY), 2,960, theaters (0)/ 3-day cume: $8.2M (-17%)/5-day cume:/Total: $11.5M/Total cume: $24.1M/Wk 2

7). Secret In Their Eyes (STX), 2,392 theaters / 3-day cume: $4.5M (-32%)/5-day: $5.97M /Total cume: $14M/Wk 2

8). Spotlight (OPRD), 897 theaters (+299)/ 3-day cume: $4.495M (+27%) /5-day:$5.7M/ Total cume: $12.3M /Wk 4

brooklyn film
brooklyn film

9). Brooklyn (FSL), 824 theaters (+713) /3-day cume: $3.8M (+230%)/5-day: $4.85M/Total cume: $7.3M /Wk 4

10). The Martian (FOX), 1,407 theaters (-679) /3-day cume: $3.3M (-13%)/5-day: $4.5M/ Total cume: $218.6M / Wk 9

11). Love The Coopers (LGF), 1,951 theaters (-652)/3-day cume: $3.05M (-26%) /5-day cume:$4.3M/Total cume: $20.486M/Wk 3

12). Victor Frankenstein (FOX), 2,737 theaters /3-day cume: $2.3M/5-day: $3.4M/Wk 1

13). Trumbo (Bleecker), 616 theaters (+570) /3-day cume: $1.5M (+493%)/5-day: $1.9M/Total cume: $2.57M/Wk 4

Notables:

Legend (UNI), 40 theaters /3-day cume: $285K (+228%)/3-day PTA: $7K /5-day: $404K/Total cume: $514K/Wk 2

Carol (TWC), 4 theaters /3-day cume: $203K (-20%) /3-day PTA: $51K/5-day cume: $276K/Total: $588K/Wk 2

The Danish Girl (FOC), 4 theaters / $274K Fri. (+15%)/3-day cume: $185K / Per screen: $46K /Wk 1

4th/5th UPDATE, Friday 10:20 PM/Saturday 9:11AM, Weekend outlook: Black Friday, one of the mothers of moviegoing days, racked up an estimated $72M for the top 20 movies, repping a 112% surge over Thanksgiving’s B.O., a day when most folks stay at home. Most films chalked up 100% upticks in their Friday grosses over Thursday, with films like 20th Century Fox’s The Peanuts Movie, Open Road’s Spotlight and Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn seeing near two-fold increases over Turkey Day. Total ticket sales for the three-day period following the holiday are being estimated at $182.7M, which would be the fourth best for this frame of all-time, +12% over last year’s post Thanksgiving FSS. After a lucrative Black Friday, studio B.O. analysts are expecting grosses to be off just a tad today, mostly dropping between -5% and -10%. Specialty adult titles like Brooklyn, Carol, Spotlight and The Danish Girl are estimated to post either slight gains of 5% over Friday or stay even.

Katniss was always destined to be on top at the T-Day stretch, if pacing behind her earlier self in Mockingjay – Part 1. Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 spiked 107% on Friday over Thanksgiving, taking an estimated $21.5M, which is $2.7M short of what MJ1 did on Black Friday last year.

The second weekend for MJ2 currently looks to be off by 51% with $50.3M, while over 5 days, the film is expected to take in $74.4M. As we always predicted, MJ2 was bound to slot third over the Turkey stretch behind Catching Fire (2nd FSS: $74.1M, 5-day: $109.9M) and MJ1 (2nd FSS: $57M, 5-day: $82.7M).

Still, the masses won’t quit Katniss. Per RelishMix, Twitter hashtags for the film — #HungerGames, #Mockingjay and #MockingjayPart2 — even though they’ve subsided since last week, are outnumbering those for The Good Dinosaur, Creed and Victor Frankenstein. MJ2 has 15K hashtags daily, predominantly spurred by females (no shocker there). The overall sentiment from the social chatter illustrates a sense of nostalgia from the fans: They’ll miss the series. Facebook and Twitter posts range from costumed fan photos in theater lobbies to Hunger Games emojis.

So with all this groundswell, why does MJ2 continue to lag behind MJ1, and even Catching Fire at the box office?

mockingjay 10
mockingjay 10

One rival studio executive remarked that the decline in the novels’ sales between Catching Fire and Mockingjay can be attributed in part to the downturn in sequels’ movie ticket sales: “Catching Fire was the most entertaining and Mockingjay transitioned out of the whole fun of the games and the mocking of the infotainment world and turned the Hunger Games storyline into a revolution story; a war-in-the-streets movie. The first two films stoked young teenage girls with the whole plotline of which guy Katniss was going to hook up with. But Mockingjay is all about taking it to the man. As big franchises go, it was risky to make a movie like that, but to Lionsgate and the producer/director’s credit, they followed the book for the sake of fans and didn’t homogenize it for mass consumption.”

good dinosaur 2
good dinosaur 2

The Friday for Disney/Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is up 138% over Thanksgiving with an estimated $15.6M on track for a FSS of $39.5M and 5-day of $55.9M; higher projections this morning than what we were seeing last night. Despite the glowing reviews and A CinemaScore, some of the buzz on Good Dinosaur has not been as fervent as June’s Inside Out. That film easily delighted kids, but emotionally moved adults with its smart psychological story about an adolescent girl’s development. Good Dinosaur skews much younger in its appeal than the average Pixar film and in a lighthearted way, quite similar to how Cars resonated with moviegoers.

RelishMix praises the social media campaign for The Good Dinosaur: For a Pixar kids’ film, it has a strong reach. Good Dinosaur’s social media universe is 96M strong, including 65M Facebook fans, 8M Twitter followers, 1.8M Instagram followers and 21.2M YouTube views. RelishMix observes that the leading social media star of the film is actually the Pixar studio itself, with 20.3M fans across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram alone. But voiceover talent Jeffrey Wright and Anna Paquin are also joining the online conversation. The official YouTube trailer drew in a strong 10.8M views. Twitter hashtags #GoodDino, #TheGoodDinosaur and #GoodDinosaur have popped during the week to 4.3k daily. While these daily hashtags are a little behind Creed’s 5.3k, note that this level of activity for an animated feature is strong vs other pic genres.

creed3
creed3

MGM/New Line’s Creed distributed by Warner Bros. is looking at an estimated $11.7M on Friday, +81% over Thursday. Creed is looking better this morning than what we saw last night with its weekend on course for $28.7M over FSS and $41.1M over 5-days. The tale, directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, follows the son of Rocky opponent/trainer Apollo Creed stepping into the ring. There has been some early awards chatter for Sylvester Stallone’s supporting turn as the aged pugilist. Consider the Rocky franchise reinvigorated: By Sunday Creed will beat the $21.9M 5-day B.O. and $26.7M 6-day take of 2006’s Rocky Balboa which Stallone wrote and directed. At the time, many talked about that film as the swan song for the character.

The holiday weekend’s third wide entry, Victor Frankenstein, is just completely buried by new, holdover and specialty competition. Fox opted to take this genre film out over the Thanksgiving weekend so as to avoid the competitive pre-Halloween period, which wasn’t any

victor frankenstein
victor frankenstein

nicer to horror fare (except the PG-rated Goosebumps, which will near $78M by Sunday). Just as audiences weren’t asking for another Peter Pan film with Warner Bros.’ Pan, no one was begging for another Frankenstein flick. It also doesn’t help that this title is following in the footsteps of Lionsgate’s I, Frankenstein (even though that came out nearly two years ago), one of the worst-reviewed movies of 2014 (at 3% rotten)…yet that movie opened to a higher number at $8.6M. Fox’s Victor looks to ignite a low voltage of $2.28M over the 3-day and $3.37M over 5 days. Light candles and say prayers that foreign recoups for this $40M production. With its noteworthy British talent, maybe Victor Frankenstein pulls off a B.O. trajectory like Dracula Untold where foreign generates 3x or more than domestic receipts.

THE DANISH GIRL
THE DANISH GIRL

Focus Features’ The Danish Girl is off to a solid start with a projected $50K per theater at four locations in New York and Los Angeles. The Tom Hooper-directed film opened on Friday. Weinstein Co’s Carol is also holding well into its second weekend.

The Top 12 films per industry estimates for the weekend of Nov. 27-29, Friday percentage change compared to Thanksgiving day daily gross:

1). The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (LGF), 4,175 theaters (0) / $21.5M Fri. (+107%) / 3-day cume: $50.3M (-51%) /5-day cume:$74.4M /Total cume: $197.1M/Wk 2

2). The Good Dinosaur (DIS), 3,749 theaters / $15.6M Fri. (+138%) / 3-day cume: $39.5M /5-day cume: $55.9M /Wk 1

3). Creed (MGM/New Line/WB), 3,404 theaters / $11.7M Fri. (+81%) / 3-day cume: $28.7M /5-day cume: $41.1M /Wk 1

4). Spectre (SONY), 2,940 theaters (-719)/ $5.26M Fri. (+96%)/ 3-day cume: $12.76M (-15%)/5-day cume: $18.4M/ Total cume: $176.3M /Wk 4

5). The Peanuts Movie (FOX), 3,006 theaters (-665)/ $3.99M Fri. (+177%) / 3-day cume: $9.8M (-26%)/5-day cume:$13.7M/Total cume: $116.9M /Wk 4

6). The Night Before (SONY), 2,960, theaters (0)/ $3.23M Fri.(+90%)/ 3-day cume: $8M (-19%)/5-day cume:/Total: $11.36M/Total cume: $23.9M/Wk 2

Spotlight
Spotlight

7). Secret In Their Eyes (STX), 2,392 theaters / $1.68M Fri.(+126%) / 3-day cume: $4.3M (-35%)/5-day: $5.77M/Total cume: $13.8M/Wk 2

8). Spotlight (OPRD), 897 theaters (+299) / $1.66M Fri. (+187%) / 3-day cume: $4.2 (+19%) /5-day:$5.46M/ Total cume: $12.1M /Wk 4

9). Brooklyn (FSL), 824 theaters (+713) / $1.4M Fri. (+188%)/3-day cume: $3.7M (+219%)/5-day: $4.7M/Total cume: $7.1M /Wk 4

10). The Martian (FOX), 1,407 theaters (-679) / $1.34M Fri. (+109%)/ 3-day cume: $3.23M (-15%)/5-day: $4.48M/ Total cume: $218.6M / Wk 9

11). Love The Coopers (LGF), 1,951 theaters (-652)/ $1.235M Fri. (+63%) / 3-day cume: $3.16M (-23%) /5-day cume:$4.4M/Total cume: $20.6M/Wk 3

12). Victor Frankenstein (FOX), 2,737 theaters / $908K Fri. (+93%)/3-day cume: $2.28M/5-day: $3.37M/Wk 1

Notables:

Tamasha (UTV), 182 theaters / $364K Fri./3-day cume: $982K / 5-day: $1.4M/Wk 1

Legend (UNI), 40 theaters / $113K Fri. (+87%) /3-day cume: $281K (+227%)/3-day PTA: $7K /5-day: $409K/Total cume: $519K/Wk 2

Carol (TWC), 4 theaters / $68K Fri. (+110%) /3-day cume: $183K (-28%) /3-day PTA: $46K/5-day cume: $256K/Total: $568K/Wk 2

The Danish Girl (FOC), 4 theaters / $76K Fri./3-day cume: $201K / Per screen: $50K /Wk 1

3RD UPDATE, Friday AM, Thanksgiving Day grosses: As is tradition on Thanksgiving Day, turnstiles slow down with most titles seeing slides from their Wednesday figures. But not MGM/New Line’s Creed from Warner Bros. Among the new titles, Creed posted a 7% gain over Wednesday in third place with $6.46M, bringing its two day cume to $12.5M. Industry B.O. analysts are revising their projections for Creed‘s five-day haul, now foreseeing $42M-$44M. MGM, WB and Ratpac co-financed this $37M-$38M Rocky spinoff, and out of the three Thanksgiving wide entries, WB spent the most on TV ads, $27.1M, per iSpot.TV, with most of the promos running during NFL, MLB World Series and NBA sporting events. As we reported yesterday, both Creed and Disney/Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur are being powered by A CinemaScores and glowing reviews this week.

star wars force awakens
star wars force awakens

Black Friday is one of the biggest moviegoing days of the year, so any downturn yesterday will be more than made up for today. And it’s one of those moviegoing-begets-moviegoing time frames, when trailers drop before huge audiences at the multiplex, encouraging audiences to come back to the movies down the road. With less than four weeks until the debut of Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the film’s campaign was being pumped to its capacity. It appeared as though the trailer was playing every half hour during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. Off of 325 airings, iSpot.TV reports that $8.9M has been spent already on Force Awakens TV spots through yesterday, with $3.7M of the spend running during NFL games.

The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 - 2015
The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 - 2015

Katniss is, of course, still on top. She took in $10.4M yesterday, off 25% from Wednesday with a running cume of $146.7M. Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2 will continue to hold first place until Sunday, even over FSS, with a revised industry projection of $75M-$78M. Global B.O. for MJ2 stands at $338M.

good dinosaur
good dinosaur

The Good

Dinosaur saw a 33% decline on Thanksgiving with $6.56M in second place, bringing its total B.O. over two days to $16.37M. It’s going to pop today and Saturday thanks to family matinees. Current industry forecast for the animated film directed by Peter Sohn is $57M-$59M over five days. The second Pixar film of the year cost $200M before P&A, with TV ads currently amounting to $22.1M from August 1 through yesterday. Among those animated titles playing over the five-day Thanksgiving frame, The Good Dinosaur will rank above the $50.6M made by Warner Bros.’ 2006 Happy Feet, and below such Disney titans Frozen ($93.6M five-day) and Toy Story 2 ($80.1M five-day).

victor frankenstein
victor frankenstein

The Frankenstein monster scared villagers away in Mary Shelley’s novel and 20th Century Fox’s Victor Frankenstein is doing the same to moviegoers. The film continued to post under seven-digit daily grosses in its second day at the box office, falling 23% from Wednesday with $470K at 2,796 hubs. It ranked No. 12 on Thanksgiving, getting beat by Opening Road’s Spotlight ($578K at 897 venues, five-day at $5.1M, $7.8M total B.O.) and Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn ($486K at 590 theaters, five-day at $4.37M, total B.O. $3.5M) in slots No. 10 and 11. To date, Victor Frankenstein has made $1.08M. It cost a reported $40M before P&A, and iSpot.TV lists Fox’s U.S. TV ad spend at $10.6M, with most of that being spent on male-demo shows like The Walking Dead, South Park, NFL Football and NBA Basketball.

carol
carol

In the specialty realm, Weinstein Co.’s Carol slipped 17% over Wednesday with $33K and a week’s cume of $385K. That figure currently paces behind the first week of TWC’s The Imitation Game ($611K) and The King’s Speech ($483K), h0wever, this film will be in limited release for a while to pull in the bulk of holiday moviegoers after SAG and Golden Globe nominations are announced mid-December.

Universal’s Legend made $54K at 40 theaters yesterday, off 19% with a not as potent per theater as Carol. Total domestic cume to date for the British gangster film is $616K, but it has brought in $36M from 26 overseas markets.

the night before
the night before

The rest of the Thanksgiving Day B.O. unfolded as follows: No. 4 Sony/MGM/Eon’s Spectre $2.68M (+1%), five-day: $16M-$18M cume: $163.2M; No. 5 Sony’s The Night Before $1.699M (-1%), 5-day: $10M-$12M, cume to date: $15.9M; No. 6 20th Century Fox’s The Peanuts Movie $1.44M (-42%), five-day: $12M-$14.5M, cume to date: $107M; No. 7 CBS’ Love the Coopers $756K (+50%), five-day: $4.9M, cume: $17.4M, No. 8 STX/IM Global’s The Secret In Their Eyes $745K (+3%), five-day: $4.9M, cume: $9.5M.

 

2ND UPDATE, Thursday 7:57AM Wednesday grosses: Neither a Brontosaurus, nor boxer Adonis Creed could push Katniss from her No. 1 perch at the box office, as Liongate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 owned the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with $13.8M at 4,175 theaters, +21% over Tuesday for a running cume of $136.3M. MJ1 made $14.6M on Thanksgiving eve a year ago. This is according to industry estimates this morning; many studios have yet to report. MJ2 paces behind MJ1 by 16% or $21..3M. At this point in time, some are predicting that over the five-day holiday, MJ2 could do $78M-$80M, which would put it below Catching Fire‘s $109.9M (which holds the Thanksgiving spread record) and MJ1‘s $82.7M. Overseas MJ2 is at $183M with a huge global take of $320M.

GoodDinosaur
GoodDinosaur

Walt Disney/Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is off to a decent start with an A CinemaScore and a No. 2 Wednesday gross of $9.8M at 3,749 venues. That’s not as high as their animated princess pics – read: Frozen‘s Thanksgiving eve wide opening of $15.2M and Tangled‘s $11.9M, but then again this film skews more boy and this dinosaur isn’t wearing a tiara and a gown. A great start nonetheless, which will take Good Dinosaur to a $58M-62M five-day. While Good Dinosaur‘s budget is at an estimated $200M, these animated films play and play during the holiday season, so a 4x multiple is conceivable. Good Dinosaur has an 81% Rotten Tomatoes score which is more than good. Moms lead the charge to see it, with females repping 56% of the audience while men numbered 44%. The Under 18 (43%) and 25 (54%) demos both graded the film an A+. A majority of the theatergoers at 70% came out because it’s a Pixar animated title, the second this year after June’s Inside Out.

creed
creed

MGM/New Line in association with Warner Bros’ Creed earned an A CinemaScore title belt from audiences last night and $6M at 3,284 playdates in third place. Current industry projections over five-days are at $39M-$42M which will be higher than where Warner Bros. was expecting the film. Creed also has extra muscle with a 92% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, which will definitely get the adults out there. The Ryan Coogler-directed film carries a $37M-$38M production cost. Creed drew 66% males with 62% over 25. 53% bought tickets because they’re Rocky fans while 39% turned up because they like Sylvester Stallone, who has a supporting turn in this film.

Victor-Frankenstein
Victor-Frankenstein

20th Century Fox’s Victor Frankenstein is not off to a good start per industry estimates with $620K at 2,737 in 9th yesterday; that’s a per theater of $227. The Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy film earned a bloody C CinemaScore, and is currently estimated to take in $3M-$3.7M over the five-day frame. Production cost before P&A is at an estimated $40M. Older males were the dominant crowd at this title at 60% for both 25 and up and the gender; the Radcliffe fangirls are not out in droves here. 46% responded that they watched Victor Frankenstein for the type of film that is, while 45% came out for the lead actors and 43% for the subject matter. The under 25 and 18ers gave it a B+.

1st UPDATE, Tuesday AM: ‘Creed’, ‘Good Dinosaur’ Rally At Tuesday Previews

Fox had better luck with The Peanuts Movie which slotted fifth with an estimated $2.5M, +12% from yesterday with a cume of $105.6M. The Blue Sky Animation title should rake in $16M-$17M over five days, bringing its total through four weekends to $120M. Fox is reporting The Martian in 10th place with $5K less than Victor Frankenstein —$615K at 1,407 theaters — with a total to date of $214.7M.

spectre 10
spectre 10

MGM/Eon/Sony’s Spectre targeted an estimated $2.66M yesterday in No. 4, +22% at 2,940 runs. Heading into the holiday, 007 shedded 719 screens as the competition heats up. Cume for Spectre is at $160.7M, which is trailing Skyfall at the same point in time by 29%. By Thanksgiving eve that film had bagged $227.16M. By Sunday, Spectre is projected to be at $176M. Sony also owned 6th with the Seth Rogen-Anthony Mackie-Joseph Gordon-Levitt R-rated comedy The Night Before which made $1.7M, +9% on its way to a five-day holiday run of $11.5M-$12.5M. Cume by Sunday should stand at $24.5M.

STX/IM Global’s The Secret In Their Eyes declined an estimated 9% from Tuesday with $729K. Domestic ticket sales for the Julia Roberts-Nicole Kidman remake of the foreign film Oscar winner is $8.8M.

At 897 locations, Open Road’s Spotlight holds onto 8th place in its third week with $653K, +41% from Tuesday with a running cume of $7.27M.

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn is currently hanging around in 11th place, but could fight its way into the top 10 by the end of the weekend. Yesterday, the John Crowley-directed movie grossed $530K at 824 theaters, and industry projections put it at $3.9M for FSS and $5M for the weekend.

Universal’s Legend which expanded to 40 theaters brought in $67K yesterday, up close to five fold over Tuesday. It’s on course to make $485K over FSS, a 5-day of $607K and a 10-day cume of $717K.

Carol
Carol

Weinstein Co.’s Carol made $40K yesterday, up a huge 32% at four NY and LA hubs bringing its six day cume to $352K. The Todd Haynes-directed movie is looking at an estimated $275K FSS, 5-day of $357K and a 10-day run of $670K.

 

 

 

 

 

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