1. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker– $72M/$361.7M
The Rise of Skywalker joined the infamous ‘$100M losers” club in its second weekend, tumbling 59% for $72M and a $361M domestic total. It joins predecessor The Last Jedi, which lost a whopping $149M in its second weekend, but had a larger debut and thus a $368M haul after 10-days. Worldwide the Skywalker Saga’s finale has $724M.
2. Jumanji: The Next Level– $35.3M/$175.4M
3. Little Women (review)- $16.52M/$29M
Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women had a $29M week, beginning with its Christmas Day debut. The star-studded film, which is led by Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, and rising star Florence Pugh (did she win 2019 or what?) as the March girls, along co-stars, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, and Timothee Chalamet, is the 7th film version of the Louisa May Alcott story, and given the strong start and reviews, it’s likely to surpass the 1994 movie’s $50M run. Personally, I loved the film, finding it to be the first time I’ve ever cared about this story.
4. Frozen 2– $16.5M/$421.2M
5. Spies in Disguise (review)- $13.2M/$22M
Fox and Blue sky’s animated film Spies in Disguise had a $22M week. The film stars Will Smith and Tom Holland, the former playing a super spy who gets transformed into a pigeon while on a world-threatening mission. It’s a fun film, not exactly taxing on the brain, and could prove to have long legs like many of Blue Sky Studio’s projects do. These are the same folks behind the Ice Age, Rio, and Ferdinand movies, after all.
6. Knives Out– $9.7M/$110.2M
7. Uncut Gems (review)- $9.5M/$20M
The Safdies’ critically-acclaimed thriller Uncut Gems expanded to over 2300 theaters, earning $18.6M since Christmas Day and $20M total over 17-days. That’s a huge start for A24, as they push to capitalize on the Oscar buzz surrounding Adam Sandler’s nerve-racking performance. They’ll have to overcome a big split between critics who loved it and audiences who saddled it with a ‘C+” Cinemascore.
8. Cats– $4.8M/$17.8M
9. Bombshell– $4.7M/$15.6M
10. Richard Jewell– $3M/$16M
Sam Mendes’ WWI film 1917 (review here) exploded into 11 theaters on Christmas Day and came away with $1M. From Fri-Sun it made $570K for an average of nearly $52K per site. Shot to look as if it was done in a single continuous take, the film is my pick for best of the year and the Oscar buzz surrounding it should carry through for a long time as it rolls into expansion.
Meanwhile, courtroom drama Just Mercy debuted on Christmas in just four theaters, totaling $229K for the week. The film stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson who is reuniting with her Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle director Destin Daniel Cretton.
