‘Ralph Breaks The Internet’ To Score Disney’s 12th No. 1 Thanksgiving Weekend Win With $70M
For the 12th time in recorded Thanksgiving box office history (since 1982), Disney will own the holiday stretch again as their sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet looks to hit a five-day of $70M, a number far exceeding the previous five-day of 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph even though it launched on a three-day weekend during the first weekend of November clearly a FSS of $49M, Friday through Tuesday of $56.7M. Disney sees Ralph Breaks the Internet in the high $60Ms range.
Fandango reports that Ralph Breaks the Internet is outpacing the advance ticket sales of Disney’s previous two Thanksgiving launches at this point in time, Coco ($72.9M)and Moana ($82M), and of course Wreck-It Ralph. For Disney, as usual, the weekend is a slam dunk. The first Wreck-It Ralph was Oscar-nominated for best animated film and grossed $189.4M stateside, $471.2M WW.
Among 5-day Thanksgiving wide openings in U.S./Canada, Ralph Breaks the Internet should rank as the fifth best, potentially upsetting Tangled which made $68.7M from Wednesday to Sunday. The top Thanksgiving stretch opening ever belongs to Disney’s Frozen ($93.5M), but interestingly enough the movie didn’t hit No. 1 during its first wide weekend in 2013 as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire pushed it to No. 2. Disney already owns the top seven Thanksgiving 5-day spots at the domestic box office. For those keeping score, the previous No. 1 Thanksgiving titles by Disney include last year’s Coco, Moana (2016), Enchanted (2007), National Treasure (2004), Toy Story 2 (1999), A Bug’s Life (1998), Flubber (1997), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Toy Story (1995), The Santa Clause (a carryover, not an opener in 1994) and Three Men and a Baby (1987).
Holiday moviegoing is already in full effect: ComScore reports 38% K-12 schools/14% colleges out yesterday, 39%/16% out today, and 78%/61% tomorrow and near 100% on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the latter which is known as one of the more lucrative days of the year at the box office. Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald raises its 4-day to take to $67.2M after a $5.1M Monday that was -67% from Sunday. The sequel’s five-day take is expected to be in the $42M range ranking third after Ralph 2 and MGM’s Creed II.
Ralph 2 starts previews tonight at 6PM, and will play tomorrow in 3,900 sites comprised of 2,700 3D locations, 400+ Premium Large Format screens, and 90 DBOX/4D motion auditoriums. Also on the film’s side is Rotten Tomatoes which scored it 93% fresh.
For the fifth time in the Rocky/Creed series, a sequel will play the mid-November/Thanksgiving side of the calendar following the original 1976 Rocky, 1985’s Rocky IV, 1990’s Rocky V and 2015’s Creed. Previews starts tonight at 7PM and the pic is poised to make $55M at 3,350 theaters over the next five-days. Apollo Creed’s son Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) faces off with the son of Rocky Balboa’s former part 4 Russian foe Ivan Drago, Viktor Drago.
Lionsgate’s remake of Robin Hood produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and starring Taron Egerton as Robin and Jamie Foxx as Little John, is playing at 2,700 sites, projected in the mid teens over the next five-days. The Otto Bathurst-directed version has been sold in trailers as possessing intense action versus the Ridley Scott 2010 version and 1991 Kevin Reynolds-directed one. United Kingdom and Australia are also debuting this weekend with U.S. With the last Robin Hood being eight years ago, critics have had enough giving this take a 17% Rotten score.
Universal/Participant Media/DreamWorks’ Green Book expands from 25 locations to 1,050 venues, a break that’s too wide, too fast for a film with an obscure title, that is poised to be an awards contender, fueled by word of mouth. Many are projecting the five-day in the single digits, which isn’t great for this film which cost under $25M. Last weekend’s limited launch in 25 sites of $320K was an awful start given that Green Book had a national TV campaign. The Peter Farrelly-directed feature has an A+ CinemaScore going for it. Uni hopes that the movie battles its way to Golden Globe noms, and should the movie clear that mark, it will hopefully leg out during the year-end holidays.
Fox Searchlight is launching its final awards contender of the year The Favourite in four New York and Los Angeles sites. The film directed Oscar nominee Yorgos Lanthimos is not co-written by him his an writing partner Efthymis Filippou like their previous pics Dogtooth, The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer, rather it’s based off a screenplay by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. The satirical 18th century British period comedy follows a frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) whose relationship with her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) is disrupted when her cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) enters the court as a new servant. The movie premiered at Venice and continued on to Telluride at the onset of fall and has accrued a 96% Certified Fresh RT score.
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