1. Joker– $55M/$192.7M
Joker slayed ’em in its second weekend, falling only 42% for $55M and easily besting the new releases. The dark supervillain movie, which has Joaquin Phoenix as an early frontrunner for Best Actor, has $192M domestic and a whopping $543M worldwide. At this rate, Joker could end up the top-grossing non-Marvel, non-Disney release of the year, wild when you think about all of the controversy surrounding the R-rated drama.
2. The Addams Family (review)- $30.2M
It was a surprisingly robust $30M launch for the animated The Addams Family movie, which features the voices of Charize Theron, Oscar Isaac, Finn Wolfhard, Chloe Moretz, and more as the still-very-popular ghoulish clan. It does seem that people have been waiting to see this franchise bounce back after the pair of live-action movies in the ’90s, and a couple of attempted revivals in other forms. Making this a family-friendly offering, one that appeals to kids who like the animation and parents nostalgic for the familiar brand, was smart considering the lack of all-ages material out there at this time of year. I could see this easily being the start of a long, successful franchise similar to Hotel Transylvania.
3. Gemini Man (review)- $20.5M
Ang Lee may have shot himself in the foot with his ambitious hitman thriller Gemini Man. The decision to shoot the $138M film in 120fps in 4K and 3D seriously cut down on the number of theaters that could play it properly. It may have also scared off those who didn’t know what they were in for from a technological standpoint, despite all of the reviews focusing on the digitally-created younger version of Will Smith. It’s a solid movie but that’s the problem; more is expected from a movie pushing the envelope to such a degree. There’s potential for it to really hit overseas, though, where Smith is still a pretty big star and Lee’s appeal is steady. Worldwide the film has $59M with some major territories, including China, still to go.
4. Abominable– $6.1M/$47.9M
5. Downton Abbey– $4.9M/$82.6M
6. Hustlers– $3.8M/$98M
7. Judy– $3.25M/$14.9M
8. It: Chapter 2– $3.22M/$207.1M
9. Jexi– $3.1M
Apparently, nobody wants to watch Adam Devine get stalked by his cell phone. The comedy Jexi, which features the voice of Rose Byrne as the new-age smartphone which jealously tries to take over the life of its owner, wasn’t screened for most press and was largely overlooked by everybody else. The film opened with just $3M, a sad end for CBS Films which is being swallowed up inside Viacom/Paramount as it switches focus to CBS All Access streaming content.
10. Ad Astra– $1.9M/$47M
The biggest news of the week goes to Parasite, Bong Joon-ho’s critically-acclaimed dark comedy which everyone has been raving about. The mystery film (seriously, don’t let anybody spoil it for you) opened at 3 locations for $376K, an insane $125K per site average. We haven’t seen numbers like that since La La Land in 2016, and we know how that turned out. Let’s see what happens.
