Without any major wide releases hitting theaters, the top five films at the box office remainedthe same as last week, and the animated featureCocoremained on top of the box office once again.
Disney and Pixar’s film about a young boy whose love of music sends him on an epic adventure through the land of the dead easily won the weekend, and dropped a mere 48 percent from last week’s premiere — suggesting that this could be the beginning of a strong run for the critically praised film. The film has already earned nearly $280 million worldwide, and is currently on a pace to beat last year’sMoana, which premiered on the same weekend and went on to earn $248.7 million in U.S. theaters and $643.3 million worldwide.
The rest of the weekend’s top 10 films were all returning movies. Among those films,Justice Leaguecontinued to underperform and seems destined to finish its run in the bottom half of Warner Bros. Pictures’superhero cinematic universe, whileThor: Ragnarokcontinued its impressive run. The latter film will probably passGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2to become the sixth highest-grossing film worldwide inMarvel Studios’ cinematic universein the next few weeks.
Outside of the top 10 films, a pair of limited-release movies also generated some buzz over the weekend.
James Franco’sThe Disaster Artistpremiered in just 19 theaters, and thepositive buzzthat had developed around the film translated into a $1.2 million debut from those theaters, for an average of $64,254 per theater. That’s not too shabby for a movie about the making of one of the worst movies ever made.
Meanwhile, Guillermo del Toro’sThe Shape of Waterhad an even more limited release, premiering in just two theaters over the weekend. Those two theaters brought in a crowd, though, and the merman romance film netted $166,800 from those two theaters for a per-theater average of $83,400. That gave the film the biggest per-theater numbers of any film this weekend to go along with all of thepositive reviewsit received. This could mean good things for the film when it expands into more theaters.
This upcoming week is another slow one for Hollywood as the entire industry seems to be waiting for the debut ofStar Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedion December 15. Margot Robbie’s Tonya Harding biopicI, Tonyakicks off its run in limited release with some Academy Award buzz already surrounding Robbie’s performance, and the comedyJust Getting Startedalso arrives in theaters with little to no fanfare.
At this point, it’s just the calm before theLast Jedistorm in the movie world.
