The Thanksgiving stretch will see the most amount of moviegoing for this fall after being slowed down by the actors strike. Currently, the top five movie standings in terms of grosses are looking better than that of the top five of 2021, our first holiday back post-pandemic which for all titles grossed $142M per Box Office Mojo. Last Thanksgiving’s Wednesday through Sunday stretch grossed $134M for all movies. Five day projections are always tricky, so take everything now with a grain of salt.
Disney Animation’s princess movie “Wish” from “Frozen” franchise director Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn is leading with an $8.7M Wednesday (including $2.3M in previews) at 3,900 sites which will translate to a $24M-$27M 3-day and $40M-$45M 5-day. Rotten Tomatoes audience score at 84% trumps critics score which is 46%. “Wish” cost between $175M-$200M before P&A.
Second place will likely go per rivals to Lionsgate’s second weekend of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” at 3,776 theaters which is seeing $7M today, +8% from Tuesday, for a 3-day of $25M-$31M (-30% to -44%), and 5-day of $36M-$45M. Even though ranges are higher than “Wish”, the Disney pic is bound to notch No. 1. On the high end, that would get the Francis Lawrence directed movie to $101.4M by Sunday. The 5-day on “Harry Potter” spinoffs “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and “Fantastic Beasts Crimes of Grindelwald” were $65.5M and $42.3M. The last “Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2” which is not a comp here, did $76M over its Thanksgiving holiday stretch back in 2015.
Apple Original Production’s “Napoleon” distributed by Sony, at 3,500 theaters is looking at $7.4M today, including last night’s $3M, for a 3-day in the low $20M and 5-day $28-32M. That’s bound to beat the opening of Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” ($14.4M 3-day and $22M 5-day), which was also R-rated. That pic had a running time of 2 hours 38 minutes which is the same as “Napoleon”. Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 68%, not far from critics score of 64%. “Napoleon” cost a reported $200M.
Fourth belongs to Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s “Trolls Band Together” at 3,870 theaters which has a Wednesday of $5M 3-day of $18M (-40%) and 5-day of $26.3M and running total of $65.4M.
Fifth is TriStar/Spyglass Media’s horror movie “Thanksgiving” with a Wednesday of $1.7M second weekend in the mid digits and $9M 5-day.
Meanwhile, Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” led all movies with $6.5M (+24% over Monday’s $5.2M) at 3,776 theaters, taking its five-day running total to $56.4M. “Songbirds & Snakes” will share Imax screens with “Napoleon” over the five-day holiday stretch. Second on Tuesday was Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s “Trolls Band Together” with $4.73M at 3,870 theaters, +45% over Monday’s $3.2M with a running total of $38M. TriStar and Spyglass Media’s Eli Roth horror movie “Thanksgiving” was third with $1.85M (+54% over Monday) from 3,204 locations, bringing its total domestic gross to $13M since Friday. Disney/Marvel Studios’ “The Marvels” grossed $1.5M yesterday at 4,030, +34%, for a $67M running total in the midst of its second week. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” which is on Peacock and at 2,829 theaters, made $530K yesterday, +4%, for a $133.7M running total in the middle of Week 4.