Box Office: Thanksgiving Eve Sparks Worry as Disney Animation’s ‘Strange World’ and Other New Movies Fight for Scraps - Hollywood Reporter

The Thanksgiving box office is disconnected to a decidedly worrisome start, with wide gross paling successful examination to different years.

For Disney, it appears to beryllium a lawsuit of feast oregon famine. While Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever volition enactment atop the container bureau illustration for the 3rd play successful a enactment with a hearty gross of $60 cardinal to $62 cardinal for the 5 days (Wednesday done Sunday), Disney Animation’s Strange World is bombing.

Wakanda Forever led Wednesday with $10 cardinal from 4,174 theaters for a home full of $313.7 million, followed by $8.1 cardinal connected Thursday.

There was nary feasting connected Thanksgiving for Strange World, which posted a Wednesday opening time gross of $4.2 cardinal from 4,174 sites aft earning a lukewarm B CinemaScore. On Thanksgiving, the pic earned $2.5 million, driving down already muted projections.

At this pace, Strange World is looking astatine a five-day opening of $20 cardinal to $24 million, Disney Animation’s worst opening for a Thanksgiving rubric successful modern times. (Disney Animation titles, specified arsenic the Frozen franchise, usually predominate the holiday.)

Last year, Encanto posted a five-day gross of $40.6 cardinal aft earning $7.8 cardinal connected Wednesday contempt challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. And successful 2019, Frozen 2 grossed a grounds $125 cardinal for the 5 days.

Strange World opens conscionable days aft Bob Iger’s instrumentality arsenic CEO of the Walt Disney Co. aft the shocking ouster of Bob Chapek.

A slew of different caller films are besides competing for their spot astatine the Thanksgiving table, but galore are failing to entreaty to mainstream audiences.

The large enigma is Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, featuring a formed led by Daniel Craig. Netflix isn’t expected to study container bureau grosses successful keeping with its long-standing signifier to support numbers hidden from view. However, rival Hollywood studios judge the sequel, playing successful astir 638 theaters successful the U.S. and 60 locations successful Canada, could gain $10 cardinal to $12 cardinal domestically for the 5 days, putting it up of different adult-skewing films.

Glass Onion is getting an unprecedented release, and is the archetypal of the streamer’s titles to play successful each 3 of the country’s largest chains — AMC Theatres, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark Theatres.

Distribution executives inactive person their mode of collecting information straight from accumulation contacts, and 2 sources archer The Hollywood Reporter that Johnson’s sequel apt earned $2 cardinal connected Wednesday and $1.9 cardinal connected Thursday.

While the sequel is opening to acold little than the $41.4 cardinal grossed by Johnson’s Knives Out implicit Thanksgiving 2019 — the archetypal movie had the vantage of receiving a accepted theatrical merchandise from Lionsgate successful much than 3,800 locations — it is beating respective different caller Thanksgiving entries catering to adults. Netflix is pitching Glass Onion arsenic a one-week peculiar preview.

On Wednesday, Sony’s Korean War play Devotion, astir 2 naval combatant pilots, grossed $1.8 cardinal from 3,228 sites for a projected 5-day gross successful the $9.3 cardinal range. The film, which grossed different $1.2 cardinal connected Thursday, stars Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell and Jonathan Majors.

Searchlight’s epicurean horror-comedy The Menu, which is heading into its 2nd weekend, placed No. 4 Wednesday with astir $1.1 cardinal from 3,228 locations for a coagulated five-day haul of $8 cardinal oregon so.

Luca Guadagnino’s awards contender Bones and All — astir 2 young lovers and cannibals played by Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet who embark connected a roadworthy travel — grossed an estimated $921,000 Wednesday arsenic it expanded into a full of 2,727 cinemas aft launching successful prime theaters past weekend. The specialty movie is anticipating a muted five-day gross of $4 million. It earned $436,000 connected Thursday.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, a cardinal awards player, is rolling retired much dilatory successful hopes of emulating the occurrence of Oscar-winning movie Green Book. Spielberg’s latest movie opened successful New York and Los Angeles implicit the Nov. 11-13 play earlier expanding into 637 locations connected Wednesday. From Universal and Amblin, the pic earned an estimated $400,000 Wednesday and $470,000 connected Thursday for a projected five-day gross of $3 cardinal to $3.5 million.

Holdover Black Adam is besides successful the premix with an anticipated five-day gross of $4 cardinal oregon truthful from 2,842 theaters. It arrived connected integer merchandise connected Nov. 22.

Studios accent that projections could displacement again erstwhile they person Black Friday grosses.

Nov. 24, 10:30 a.m.: Updated with revised unofficial projections for Glass Onion.
Nov. 25, 8:30 a.m.: Updated with revised unofficial projections for Glass Onion.