Game Of Box Offices: “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” breaks December animated record

Opening to $35.3 million, “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” has officially become the largest three-day animated opening of all-time in the month of December, beating out Illumination’s “Sing” from two years ago. Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule” landed right where expected, hauling in a $17.5 million opening. “The Grinch” overcame “Ralph Breaks The Internet” for the first time in four weeks, with “Grinch” earning $11.7 million while “Ralph” fell to $9.2 million. The biggest news out of the weekend was Universal’s “Mortal Engines” opening to a lite $7.5 million, even below modest predictions of around $12 million. On a $100 million production budget, news reports are saying the film could lose the studio anywhere from $100-$150 million by its poor performance. Do not expect to see this one stick around for long either. The rest of the Top Five  simply shuffled positions, with “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald” falling below “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Instant Family.” The PG-13 re-release of “Once Upon A Deadpool,” sans new footage shot of Fred Savage, opened at Number 11 with $2.6 million, with the proceeds for the film going to Reynolds’ charity F*** Cancer, or as it was dubbed for this release, “Fudge Cancer.”

Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk” opened at Number 20, earning the POPCORN AWARD, earning an average of $56,119 per four theaters. Last weekend’s POPCORN AWARD winner “Mary Queen Of Scots” earned the GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD this weekend, with a box office increase of +259.3%, jumping up eight spots in the List. Fellow new releases from last week, “Vox Lux,” starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law, and “Ben Is Back,” starring Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges, both received ROCKETs, both jumping onto the List this weekend at Number 19 and Number 25  respectively. Last weekend’s release of “Racetime” was placed on the List as well, having opened on the List, but being added late. It stuck around this weekend as well, landing at Number 23. Falling off the List were seven films. “Venom,” which sees a home video release this weekend, fell off, touting a $213 million domestic run, with a worldwide run of over $850 million. Oscar hopefuls “Boy Erased,” “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “The Wife” all fell off as well. Comedy “Nobody’s Fool,” starring Tiffany Haddish and Nazi-zombie film “Overlord” fell off the List as well. Animated feature “Mirai” also fell off in its third weekend, responsible for the biggest decrease this weekend, losing -98.7% of its box office from last weekend.

Next weekend’s Christmas slate should shake up the Top 25 considerable, with “Aquaman” eyeing the crown with a projected opening of $61 million. Disney will be right behind with “Mary Poppins Returns,” as it eyes $38 million and a second place finish. Expect the drop for “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” to be less than most, as great word-of-mouth and kids being out of school should keep this one around for awhile. That means the latest Transformers film “Bumblebee” should be able to carve out a fourth place finish, looking to earn $21 million in its opening weekend. “The Mule,” “The Grinch,” and “Ralph Breaks The Internet” should be able to hold onto their positions after that. The only film that could possible dethrone any of those films would be the Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy “Second Act,” as it looks to earn $6.5 million. Also hunting for a Top Ten spot is the Steve Carell drama “Welcome to Marwen,” which eyes a $4.5 million opening. The only other release that might make some waves further down in the List is the foreign language film “Cold War,” which has been favorited by several critics groups and could see a pretty large “per theater average” for the weekend. With that being six films to make room for, expect most of the lower tier films to fall off including the documentary “Free Solo,” which has held onto the List for twelve weeks. Small releases “Kedarnath” and “Racetime” will also likely fall off in their third weekends. Expect “Ben Is Back” and “Vox Lux” to hold their ground, meaning films like “At Eternity’s Gate” and “The Possession Of Hannah Grace” to meet their end. I’m hesitant to predict “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” to fall off just because of  the time of  year, but that film has been steadily heading towards the bottom of the List for weeks.

BOX OFFICE KING: “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse”
BOX OFFICE QUEEN: “The Mule”
POPCORN AWARD*: “If Beale Street Could Talk”
GOLDEN PERCENTAGE AWARD**: “Mary Queen of Scots”

#	Title	Weekend	Total	Budget	Week	LW	CH
1	Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (Sony)	$35,363,376	($35,363,376)	$90m	1st	N
2	The Mule (WB)	$17,509,431	($17,509,431)	$50m	1st	N
3	The Grinch (Uni)	$11,753,665	($239,463,375)	$75m	6th	#2
4	Ralph Breaks the Internet (BV)	$9,274,018	($154,149,896)	$175m	4th	#1
5	Mortal Engines (Uni)	$7,559,850	($7,559,850)	$100m	1st	N
6	Creed II (MGM)	$5,385,914	($104,870,060)	$50m*	4th	#3
7	Bohemian Rhapsody (Fox)	$4,314,179	($180,612,379)	$52m	7th	#5
8	Instant Family (Par)	$3,790,287	($60,288,341)	$48m	5th	#6
9	Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (WB)	$3,789,839	($151,793,249)	$200m	5th	#4
10	Green Book (Uni)	$2,774,630	($24,654,996)	$23m	5th	#7
11	Once Upon a Deadpool (Fox)	$2,683,200	($3,967,120)	**	1st	N
12	The Favourite (FoxS)	$2,605,484	($6,775,387)	$15m*	4th	#12
13	Widows (Fox)	$1,269,201	($40,884,857)	$42m	5th	#10
14	Robin Hood (2018) (LG/S)	$1,216,031	($29,799,864)	$100m	4th	#8
15	The Possession of Hannah Grace (SGem)	$1,184,814	($13,909,719)	$9.5m*	3rd	#8
16	A Star Is Born (WB)	$1,040,024	($199,178,098)	$36m	11th	#11
17	Mary Queen of Scots (Focus)	$699,745	($962,580)	$25m*	2nd	#25
18	The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (BV)	$566,468	($53,668,267)	$120m	7th	#13
19	Vox Lux (Neon)	$243,694	($432,905)	**	2nd	#29
20	If Beale Street Could Talk (AP)	$224,476	($224,476)	$12m*	1st	N
21	At Eternity’s Gate (CBS)	$191,642	($1,449,904)	**	6th	#17
22	Kedarnath (PYB)	$181,108	($744,189)	$4.9m*	2nd	#16
23	Racetime (EOne)	$167,929	($493,988)	**	2nd	#20
24	Ben Is Back (RAtt)	$141,680	($250,612)	$13m*	2nd	#38
25	Free Solo (NGE)	$138,868	($10,803,175)	**	12th	#19

<<<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