'Strange World' Leads the Holiday Weekend in Theaters

Last week's top movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will probably be the top movie overall in theaters over the holiday weekend, but the new animated movie Strange World will be the biggest of the new releases. It's not clear, however, if either movie has enough pull to make the weekend a good one for theater owners. Read on for details.

Via Box Office Mojo.

Though Black Panther: Wakanda Forever looks to top the charts in its third weekend, possibly hitting $350 million by Sunday after passing $300 million on Tuesday, the four big Wednesday releases for the long Thanksgiving frame are all set to shake up what has been a mostly limp box office. Strange World from Disney, Devotion from Sony, The Fabelmans from Universal, and Bones and All from United Artists Releasing (the latter two expanding from just a handful of screens) make this one of the busiest weekends of the year in terms of new releases. We may not see impressive performances from any of these titles, but the slate should be enough to keep the overall box office above $100 million for the third weekend in a row, the first time this has happened since July (in fact, the past two weekends were the first time since July there were even two in a row). This will also be the first weekend in over a month with two titles above $10 million and could be the first weekend since July where two films gross over $20 million, and it could be the first time since August the entire top five is above $5 million. None of this is to say this will be a great or even good Thanksgiving weekend, but it’s an improvement over much of the fall.

Of the new releases, the biggest opening will come from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Strange World, which opens in 4000 theaters. The old fashioned sci-fi adventure is about a family exploring a mysterious planet, and it features the voice talents of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu. The market is ripe for a new animated film, with no significant toons since July’s DC League of Super-Pets, and a big animated title from the House of Mouse has practically become a new Thanksgiving tradition, with a Disney or Pixar animated release every November for the past decade barring 2020. At 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews suggest Strange World is a worthy if not exemplary addition to the catalogue, but the box office looks to underwhelm.

Much less is expected of the adult titles, all expected to fall in the single digit millions for the three-day and possibly even for the five-day. Yes, the box office is in a better place than a year ago, but it doesn’t look like any of the new adult titles will top last Thanksgiving’s House of Gucci, which opened to $14.4 million for the three day and $22 million for the five-day and ultimately grossing $53.8 million. That’s hardly a smash, but it was the best showing for an adult title in the Omicron-variant impacted winter. This year, that’d be a lucky outcome for any of the new adult titles.

Get the rest of the story at Box Office Mojo.