“Ralph” Almost Breaks a Box Office Record

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report Comments Off on “Ralph” Almost Breaks a Box Office Record

BOX OFFICE REPORT

November 23-25, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Ralph Breaks the Internet  $55.6 million
Creed II $35.2 million
The Grinch $30.2 million
Fantastic Beasts:
The Crimes of Grindelwald 		 $29.6 million
Bohemian Rhapsody $13.8 million

Ralph returned to wreck it some more, and was only a few million shy of that high score. With an estimated $84.4 million since opening Wednesday, that's the second-highest five-day Thanksgiving debut. The champion remains Frozen, which couldn't let its whopping $93.5 million record go. That's a bit of an improvement on the original, which opened with $49 million over three days back in 2012. The film should have plenty of time to cross the seemingly standard $200 million threshold for animated Disney films, as it won't have any competition to speak of until Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse opens on December 14.

Creed II also improved on its predecessor. The Rocky follow-up earned $55.8 million in five days, a leap up from the last film's $42.1 million over the same five-day Thanksgiving weekend three years ago. While the film was a big hit and earned an Oscar nomination, it soared in popularity in recent years, with some fans ranking it as the second-best Rocky movie. This sequel should easily top the $109 million Creed took in, and become one of the biggest sports movies ever.

The Grinch held on strongly, dropping only 21 percent. It's already No. 12 for the year and should cross $200 million by the end of next weekend. It's looking like it may finish 6th for the year, barring an extremely strong performance from one or more Christmas releases. Fantastic Beasts didn't look so fantastic in its second weekend. Dropping more than 50 percent, The Crimes of Grindelwald will soon fizzle out, earning anywhere from $50 to $75 million less than its predecessor. Bohemian Rhapsody looked strong in its fourth weekend. By next weekend, it will likely overtake Straight Outta Compton to be the biggest music biopic ever. Mama mia.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos' royal farce. The black comedy averaged $105,000 on its four screens. That's easily the best independent debut of the year.
  • Robin Hood couldn't even steal from the rich. The latest attempt at the classic story resulted in another flop. Finishing in 7th place, it only took in $14.1 million since opening Wednesday.
  • Despite earning the coveted People's Choice Award at Toronto, Green Book is struggling to find its audience. Going wide on Wednesday, it only finished in 9th place.

Next week:

The weekend after Thanksgiving is always quiet, but there's actually not much to speak of for the next two weekends. Next week's only new wide release is horror flick The Possession of Hannah Grace. While that one might debut pretty strongly, its best hope is No. 3. Ralph Breaks the Internet and Creed II will both repeat in the top two spots.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.