Game Of Box Offices: “The Grinch” steals the weekend Box Office

Easily taking the crown this weekend is Illumination’s “The Grinch,” hauling in $67.5 million, a tad short of the $69 million projected open. Still, that was way more than enough to knock last week’s winner, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” to second with $31.2 million. The zombie Nazi film “Overlord” opened at third to $10.2 million, with “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” earning $10 million and a fourth place finish. Hanging on to the Top Five for a sixth straight week, “A Star Is Born” added $8.1 million to its $178 million total, beating out newcomer “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” which opened at Number Six with $7.8 million, and “Nobody’s Fool,” which fell to Number Seven with $6.6 million. “Venom” beat out “Halloween” for Number Eight while “The Hate U Give” hung on to its Number Ten position from last week. “Thugs of Hindustan” surprised by opening at Number 14, earning $1.1 million.

Earning the POPCORN AWARD this week was “The Grinch,” earning an average of $16,318 in 4,141 theaters. The closest second was outside the Top 25 with fellow newcomer “The Front Runner” starring Hugh Jackman, which earned an average of $12,886 in four theaters. The GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD went to last weekend’s newcomer “Boy Erased,” which added 72 theaters and increased by +266.2%. Despite a week of mostly falling numbers, “Beautiful Boy” was able to move up a spot to Number 12 in its fifth weekend. “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” was right behind it at Number 13, moving up four spots. The rest of the list falls into the mostly negative, with “First Man” falling five spots, “Mid90s” falling eight, and “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” and “Johnny English Strikes Again” both narrowly missing the BOMB this week with a nine spot drop for each of them. The BOMB this week went to “Hunter Killer” in its third weekend, falling eleven spots. That was enough to give it the biggest percentage drop within the List this week with a decrease of -79.4%. Falling off the list were four of the predicted fall offs including “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Bad Times at the El Royale” in their thirteenth and fifth weekends respectively, as well as “Colette” and “Indivisible” in their eighth and third weekends respectively.

Next weekend, we will crown yet another newcomer, with “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald” looking to conjure up a $70 million opening. Looking to compete for a third place finish will be the new Mark Wahlberg-Rose Byrne film “Instant Family,” targeting an $18 million opening. And the latest from director Steve McQueen (“12 Years A Slave”) titled “Widow” which features an ensemble cast highlighted by Academy Award winner Viola Davis looks for a $15.5 million opening, putting it in direction competition with “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the fourth and fifth positions. Also opening in limited release will be “Green Book,” which has strong Oscar buzz and should also find a spot on the list next week, likely eyeing the POPCORN AWARD as well. Making room for these four titles will likely be “The House With A Clock in its Walls,” which we predicted would fall off this week, but held on to the Number 25 spot and will more than likely fall off next week instead. Continuing its lackluster fall from the List will be “Johnny English Strikes Again” after its near BOMB this week. “Hunter Killer” will likely finish out its BOMB weekend by falling off the List next weekend. The last drop off will likely either be “Mid90s” finishing its descent off the list or “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween,” which has completely lost its Halloween audience and will fall off soon, if not this weekend.

BOX OFFICE KING: “The Grinch”
BOX OFFICE QUEEN: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
POPCORN AWARD*: “The Grinch”
GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD**: “Boy Erased”

#	Title	Weekend	Total	Budget	Week	LW	CH
1	The Grinch (Uni)	$67,572,855	($67,572,855)	$75m	1st	N
2	Bohemian Rhapsody (Fox)	$31,201,568	($100,362,116)	$52m	2nd	#1
3	Overlord (Par)	$10,202,108	($10,202,108)	$38m	1st	N
4	The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (BV)	$10,086,869	($35,778,403)	$120m	2nd	#2
5	A Star Is Born (WB)	$8,105,163	($178,115,551)	$36m	6th	#4
6	The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Sony)	$7,810,112	($7,810,112)	$43m	1st	N
7	Nobody’s Fool (Par)	$6,636,242	($24,372,350)	$19m	2nd	#3
8	Venom (Sony)	$4,915,378	($206,298,981)	$100m	6th	#6
9	Halloween (2018) (Uni)	$3,998,885	($156,968,730)	$10m	4th	#5
10	The Hate U Give (Fox)	$2,051,363	($26,687,246)	$23m	6th	#10
11	Smallfoot (WB)	$1,508,102	($80,309,655)	$80m*	7th	#7
12	Beautiful Boy (2018) (Amazon)	$1,450,661	($5,227,614)	$25m*	5th	#13
13	Can You Ever Forgive Me? (FoxS)	$1,442,422	($3,577,399)	**	4th	#17
14	Thugs of Hindustan (Yash)	$1,185,386	($1,449,848)	$42m*	1st	N
15	Night School (Uni)	$1,000,260	($75,997,005)	$29m	7th	#12
16	First Man (Uni)	$918,060	($43,730,765)	$59m	5th	#11
17	Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (Sony)	$886,978	($45,867,822)	$35m	5th	#8
18	Free Solo (NGE)	$774,915	($8,121,788)	**	7th	#16
19	Boy Erased (Focus)	$758,173	($1,031,337)	**	2nd	#24
20	Hunter Killer (LG/S)	$726,230	($15,202,381)	$40m*	3rd	#9
21	The Old Man & the Gun	$457,211	($10,218,046)	**	7th	#18
22	Mid90s (A24)	$401,506	($6,818,996)	**	4th	#14
23	Suspiria (Amazon)	$366,600	($1,945,156)	$20m*	3rd	#19
24	Johnny English Strikes Again (Uni)	$357,125	($3,991,270)	$25m	3rd	#15
25	The House With A Clock In Its Walls (Uni)	$306,795	($67,812,775)	$42m	8th	#21

<<<ALL DOMESTIC NUMBERS FROM BOX OFFICE MOJO>>>>

OFF THE CHARTS THIS WEEK

(OFFICIALLY CLOSED)

*POPCORN AWARD goes to the highest per theater average within the Top 25 List
**GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD goes to the highest increase within the Top 25 List