Thanks to a remarkable hold by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and a record setting debut by Disney’s Frozen, there was an extremely robust box office over the five-day holiday weekend.
Dipping only 52% from its monster debut, Catching Fire won the weekend earning $74.5 million over Friday to Sunday, easily outpacing my $56.8M projection. The sequel earned $110.2 million over the entire holiday frame and has taken in an astonishing $296 million in just ten days. Catching Fire is currently on pace to become 2013’s highest grossing title and should supplant the current winner Iron Man 3‘s $409 million domestic haul.
Disney’s Frozen now has the distinction of having the largest Thanksgiving opening of all time. It placed second with $66.7 million over Friday to Sunday and $93 million since its Wednesday debut (easily above my respective projections of $48.3M and $69.1M). With its A+ Cinemascore grade, expect Frozen to be a major player through the Christmas season.
Thor: The Dark World in its fourth weekend took in $11.1 million for third place, above my $9.5M estimate. In fourth, holdover The Best Man Holiday made $8.1 million in its third weekend, above my $7.1M projection.
Rounding out the top five is newcomer Homefront with Jason Statham and James Franco, debuting with middling results. The pic made $6.9 million over Friday to Sunday and $8.7 million over the five-day holiday frame. This is below my respective projections of $9.7M and $12.8M.
In sixth, Vince Vaughn’s Delivery Man dipped just 12% in weekend two with $6.9 million (above my $5.5M projection). Seventh place belonged to The Book Thief, which expanded its theater count and grossed $4.8 million over Friday to Sunday (below my $5.6M estimate) and $6.5 million over the five-day frame (just below my $7.2M estimate).
Where I really went wrong for the holiday weekend was my prediction for Black Nativity, the ensemble musical starring Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, and others. I predicted it would have a #3 showing with a healthy $19.3 million over Friday to Sunday and $26.8 million over the five day holiday weekend. Boy, was I wrong. Nativity managed just $3.8 million over Friday to Sunday and $5 million over Wedensday to Sunday. Whoops.
In ninth was Philomena with Judi Dench which also expanded its screen count to the tune of $3.7 million for Friday to Sunday (I predicted $3.9M) and $4.7 million for the five day (I said $5.1M).
Rounding out the top ten was 12 Years a Slave with $3 million (I incorrectly didn’t have it in the top ten).
Finally, Spike Lee’s Oldboy with Josh Brolin totally bombed for a 17th place showing with only $850,000 for Friday to Sunday and $1.2 million for the five day. I gave it a bit too much credit with respective predictions of $2.4M and $3.5M.
And there’s your Thanksgiving results. I’ll have my prediction up on the blog later today for next weekend’s only newbie, Out of the Furnace with Christian Bale.
***Blogger’s note: Any hardcore and even casual fan of the movies is frankly stunned by the news out of Hollywood involving the untimely death of Paul Walker. Just this year, I took it upon myself to watch all of the entries in the Fast and Furious franchise. I haven’t finished yet, but I certainly came to appreciate the talents of Mr. Walker, not just in that series of movies, but in Varsity Blues, She’s All That, Running Scared, and others. May he rest in peace.
All My Life... I Wanted To Be A Blogster 