Moana takes Thanksgiving No.1; Allied disappoints, Rules Don’t Apply flops
Disney have yet another mega-hit on their hands as their latest animated adventure, Moana, took first place at the US box office over the Thanksgiving weekend. At the other end of the spectrum, the return of both Bad Santa and Warren Beatty did not fare quite so well. (via Box Office Mojo).
Moana, from The Lion King director’s Ron Clements and John Musker and featuring the voices of Dwayne Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho, grossed an estimated $81.1million over the five-day holiday weekend – $55.5million of which came Friday – Sunday. The opening marks the 2nd biggest Thanksgiving ever, just behind two other Disney films: Frozen ($93.6million over the five-day period) and Toy Story 2 with $80.1million.
Internationally, the film grossed $16.3million but is still to open in the UK, France, Spain and Russia, all of which get the film this coming Friday. (read our review here).
Last week’s No.1, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, dropped one place but still managed to gross $65.76million over the five-day weekend ($45.1million three-day) to bring its US total to $156.2million and currently stands at $473.7million worldwide.
Marvel and Disney’s Doctor Strange is next on the chart with $18.85million grossed over the extended weekend and now stands at $205million domestic, the 10th Marvel film to cross $200million. It stands at $615.9million worldwide.
The weekend’s other big new releases were Allied and Bad Santa 2: directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, Allied finished with $18million over the five-day ($13million three-day). Though the total is what many insiders had predicted, the opening is disappointing given the large $85million budget the film carries.
Bad Santa 2, meanwhile, fared little better in terms of grosses with the film taking just $9million over the five-day weekend, however with a relatively small budget of $26million, the film has a better chance of covering its costs in the long run.
And spare a thought for the legendary Warren Beattty: returning to the screen for the first time since 2001’s Town & Country, his new film Rules Don’t Apply (which he also directed) had one of the worst opening weekends in history. Opening to just $2.17million, it had the worst wide-opening of the year and consequently sees it now stand as the 6th worst opening of all-time for a film debuting in 2,000+ theatres, in with such company as Oogieloves In The Big Baloon Adventure, Delgo, Jem and the Holograms and Rock The Kasbah.