The Big Picture
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes finally dropped out of the top 5, suggesting audiences wanted to watch more positive movies for Christmas weekend. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom debuts at #1, but its overall performance highlights the need for superhero studios to rethink their approach. Wonka drops to #2 but still makes over $250 million worldwide, a solid performance for the Roald Dahl adaptation.
It took a superhero, a chocolatier, several ducks, a group of wrestlers and a steamy couple to take The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes out of the weekly top ten most watched movies in the U.S. After holding steady at #2 for several weeks, the Hunger Games prequel took a nosedive and dropped all the way to #8, which suggests that moviegoers wanted something more positive for the Christmas weekend.
As expected, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom debuted at #1 with over $40 million raked in domestically, according to projections. According to projections, that number was doubled in the rest of the world, which means that a fair amount of people showed up at the opening weekend to witness the death of the old DCEU. Despite the $120 million turnout worldwide, the number is a far cry from the previous installment’s performance. Once again, this speaks to the way that audiences received superhero blockbusters this year, which underscores the need for Marvel Studios and DC to go back to the drawing board and rethink the approach to their valuable IPs.
Despite its indisputable Christmas vibes, Wonka lost the top spot and dropped to #2 pretty fast. This week, the imaginative reboot claimed over $18 million domestically, which is half as much it did on its opening weekend. With an extra $20 million raked in internationally, the Timothée Chalamet (Dune: Part Two) movie is now projected at over $250 million worldwide, which is a bit of a lackluster performance but still means a solid run for the Roald Dahl adaptation.
Ducks on ‘Migration’ Fly Over the Box Office And Claim Their Spot
Parents made sure that kids’ animated movie Migration made some noise over the weekend and during Christmas. The family movie debuted at #3 and is projected to make over $17 million once the Christmas day numbers are tallied, which is a pretty good opening and a massive takeover once you consider that Wish and Trolls Band Together were holding strong until the ducks arrived. This week’s premieres made Trolls and Wish drop out of the Top 10 altogether for the first time since they premiered.
Anyone But You proved that Christmas is as good a time as any for a steamy romance. The story, which centers around Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell having a love-hate, unapologetic relationship, debuted at #4 domestically with over $8 million, and international numbers are yet to be tallied. Rounding up the top 5 is Bollywood movie Salaar: Part 1 — Ceasefire, which drew enough people to profit over $6 million domestically. Worldwide, the movie is already a hit. Should it stay this course, the movie can easily outperform previous hit RRR, which made $15 million domestically.
With no high-profile releases scheduled for next week, we’ll have to see how moviegoers behave just before New Year and check out possible shake-ups at the domestic box office.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Arthur must enlist the help of his half-brother Orm in order to protect Atlantis against Black Manta, who has unleashed a devastating weapon in his obsessive quest to avenge his father’s death.
Release Date December 22, 2023
Director James Wan
Rating PG-13
Runtime 124 minutes
Writers David Leslie Johnson , Paul Norris , Mort Weisinger
Studio Warner Bros. and DC
Franchise DC