The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes held on to number one over the Thanksgiving holiday period in North America on an estimated $28.8m three-day haul as Ridley Scott’s Napoleon opened its campaign in second place on $20.4m and Disney’s animation Wish disappointed in third on $19.5m.
Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games sequel stands at $98.4m after two sessions and will cross $100m within days. It grossed approximately $42m over the five-day Wednesday-Sunday period and is on the cusp of reaching $200m at the global box office.
Napoleon, Apple Original Films’ $200m awards hopeful distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment and led by Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte who rose to prominence in the late 18th Century, debuted above expectations on $32.5m over five days.
The historical epic also stars Vanessa Kirby as Napoleon’s great love Josephine and earned $8.4m on Friday, $7.5m on Saturday and a projected projecting $4.5m on Sunday from 3,500 locations, including IMAX, Premium Large Formats, and 70mm.
It will continue to play exclusively in theatres until it debuts on the Apple TV+ platform. Despite the hefty price tag, box office performance will not come under the same scrutiny as films backed by studios which operate separate P&L statements for each release. Napoleon is something of a theatrical teaser to the eventual debut on a platform owned by a parent with a $2.95tn market cap which is experimenting with theatrical releases.
Apple Studios also has Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon in release via Paramount and the crime epic dropped out of the top 10 in its sixth weekend to rank 13th on $65.6m. Apple Studios is partnering with different Hollywood majors on the exclusive theatrical release of it tentpoles, with Universal scheduled to distribute Matthew Vaughn’s action thriller Argylle in February.
Disney Animation’s Wish, which also carried a reported $200m price tag, is a different proposition. It arrived in third place on an estimated $31.7m over the Wednesday-Sunday period and had been expected to win the domestic weekend.
The opening result extends a poor box office run for Disney following the travails of The Marvels starring Brie Larson, which currently languishes in sixth place on $76.9m after three weekends and will struggle to avoid becoming the first Marvel Studios feature to fail to cross $100m domestically.
Ariana DeBose voices the lead character in Wish as Asha, who sets about ridding her homeland of Rosas from evil forces. The voice cast includes Chris Pine.
Wish earned $8m on Friday, $7m on Saturday and a projected $4.5m on Sunday, while the five-day take was $31.7m. Given the excellent A- CinemaScore and strong four out of five star PostTrak polling, Disney executives will hope Wish will play into the year-end holidays and possibly echo the performance of Elemental.
The Pixar film opened on a lowly $29.6m in mid-June this year and stayed in the top five for five weeks, gaining over July Fourth weekend and finishing on $154m in North America and close to $500m worldwide.
Wish’s debut does not solely reflect on Disney and indicates lingering challenges to family box office in the wake of the pandemic. Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls Band Together in fourth place added $17.5m for $64.5m following a 41.6% drop in the second weekend.
In 2017 Trolls, released via Twentieth Century Fox which distributed DreamWorks Animationfilms at the time, finished on $154m. Trolls World Tour went straight to streaming in 2020 during the pandemic.
Turning to this season’s awards contenders, Alexander Payne’s 1970-set comedy-drama The Holdovers held firm in seventh place through Focus Features, expanding by 123 sites to 1,601 and adding $2.8m for $12.9m after five weekends. The film’s top market remains New York, followed by Boston and Los Angeles and Focus reported Chicago, Washington DC and Philadelphia continued to outperform their normal market shares.
Amazon MGM Studios’ class drama Saltburn from Emerald Fennell expanded wide from seven theatres to 1,566 and climbed five places to number nine in its second weekend, adding $1.7m for an early $3.1m.
Alamo and arthouse venues were cited as among a core group of locations reporting solid business. East and West Coast audiences are driving just under 55% of business compared to the 41.9% norm, and 16 of the top 25 locations are in New York and California. Overall audience comprises 53% male-47% female, with 65% coming from the 18-34 age demographic.
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla – a biopic of Priscilla Presley’s time with Elvis Presley starring Venice Volpi Cup winner Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi – climbed three slots to number nine after slimming down the theatre count in its fifth weekend from 1,802 to 1,063. The drama brought in $1.3m via A24 for a $19.6m running total.
Neon’s Palme d’Or crime drama Anatomy Of A Fall directed by Justine Triet and starring Sandra Huller held firm at number 17 and has earned $3.4m after seven weekends.
Aki Kaurismaki’s Cannes entry and Finnish Oscar submission Fallen Leaves ranks 18th after climbing two places and expanding from two to eight sites. It earned $42,510 for a $115,615 tally through Mubi.
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