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NEW YORK (AP) – Thanksgiving weekend cinema visits were still a long way from the festival it usually is, but Disney’s Encanto and Lady Gaga-led House of Gucci both have two genres that are affected by the pandemic particularly hard hit: family films and adult dramas.
“Encanto” led the box office at $ 27 million over the weekend and $ 40.3 million over the five-day holiday frame, according to studio estimates on Sunday. While the Disney animated films released over Thanksgiving lagged far behind the pace – “Coco” started at the same time of the year at $ 72 million and “Ralph Breaks the Internet” at $ 84 million. The result was the best opening for an animated film during the pandemic.
Family films have been particularly slow to recover, although as children have been vaccinated, hope has risen that releases like “Encanto” can lead to recovery. Disney released films like Pixar’s “Luca” directly on Disney + earlier this year, but released “Encanto,” which was reportedly produced for $ 120 million, exclusively in theaters. The film about a magical Colombian family and with original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda grossed 70 million dollars worldwide.
MGM’s “House of Gucci,” directed by Ridley Scott, debuted for $ 14.2 million over the three-day weekend and $ 21.8 million over five days. That, too, was one of the best accomplishments for an adult drama. Scott’s own “The Last Duel” for Disney’s 20th Century Studios, which hit the market in October for a meager $ 4.8 million.
Budgeted at $ 75 million, the House of Gucci about the family behind the Italian fashion brand has a large cast including Adam Driver, Jared Leto and Al Pacino. But especially her star Lady Gaga, who plays Patrizia Reggiani, drove the turnout. According to MGM, 59% of the audience were female and 45% were between 18 and 35 years old. Approximately 34% were 45 years and older – a higher turnout among senior moviegoers than most publications.
“Originality still counts in the public mind,” said Erik Loomis, MGM’s sales director. “We were very satisfied with the results. When you asked me if I was going to go to the weekend, I prayed the predictions were correct because you just don’t know today. They just don’t know how the market will react. ”
Thanksgiving weekend often accounts for around $ 250 million in ticket sales domestically. Total business that weekend was about $ 142 million, according to data firm Comscore – a little more than half of typical business, but also almost seven times better than Thanksgiving 2020 when many cinemas were still closed.
MGM has been more concerned with resuming the cinema than most studios; his James Bond film “No Time to Die” is rated No. 1 film of the year worldwide at 755 million US dollars. Over the weekend, MGM also released Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” a coming-of-age romance with Alana Haimand Cooper Hoffman, on four 70mm screens for an average of $ 83,852 per screen – by far the best of the pandemic . “Licorice Pizza” will continue to expand in the coming weeks.
“After all the talk about the reluctance of certain segments of the population to go to the cinema – mature audiences and family audiences – both came out that weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “This box office Thanksgiving weekend should be very encouraging for the industry, which has been the hardest part of getting that audience back into theaters.”
Yet every step forward for the film industry this year has been accompanied by setbacks. The discovery of the new, potentially more contagious variety of Omicron gave a shudder to Hollywood, which has been trying to rebuild the habit of going to the cinema. Even as the nations scrambled to enact new travel regulations because of the variant, experts warned that much is still unknown about the new variety.
Last week’s top movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, slipped into second place in week two at $ 24.5 million, after a modest 44% decline. The Sony Pictures release grossed $ 87.8 million domestically and $ 28 million internationally. The studio’s horror department, Screen Gems, also opened the R-rated “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City”, a new start in the seven-film video game adaptation series. It debuted at $ 5.3 million for the three-day weekend and $ 8.8 million for the holiday frame.
On its fourth weekend after release, Marvel’s “Eternals” increased $ 7.9 million in ticket sales over the three-day weekend to bring the cumulative total in North America to $ 150.6 million and $ 368 million worldwide.
Focus Features expanded the Belfast Oscar competition, Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical story about his childhood in the Northern Irish city, to 1,128 locations in its third week. Belfast earned $ 1.3 million over the five-day weekend, bringing its total to $ 5 million so far.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday in US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
1. Charm, $ 27 million.
2. Ghostbusters: The Afterlife, $ 24.5 million.
3. “House of Gucci,” $ 14.2 million.
4. “Eternal,” $ 2.5 million.
5. Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City, $ 5.3 million.
6. “Clifford the Big Red Dog”, $ 4.9 million.
7. “King Richard”, $ 3.3 million.
8. “Dune”, $ 2.2 million.
9. “No Time to Die,” $ 1.8 million.
10. Venom: Let There Be Carnage, $ 1.6 million.
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Follow AP film writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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