Weekend Box Office: A Good Weekend for Escaping to the Theater
by EG
As expected, the negative feelings surrounding this week's presidential election seem to have driven Americans to seek escapism in theaters. Last weekend's top two movies held on well to take the top two spots, and two of the week's new movies drew sizable audiences, too.
The week's top movie was, once again, Doctor Strange, the Marvel superhero film that took in a whopping $85 million last week. The movie's business dropped up off by less than half this week, resulting in gross ticket sales of about $43 million.
The number-two spot went, just like last week, to the animated family film Trolls. This one held over spectacularly, dropping just 25 percent from last week for a take of $35 million.
The week's top new movie was the sci-fi drama Arrival, which moderately outperformed expectations to bring in about $24 million and settle into third place.
The holiday comedy Almost Christmas did essentially as expected, pulling in $15 million and taking firm possession of fourth place.
The top five was filled out by the war drama Hacksaw Ridge, which also held on particularly well, bringing in just short of $11 million.
The week's final new wide release, the horror film Shut In, didn't do quite as well. Its $3.7-million take was only good enough for seventh place.