Weekend Box Office Report
December 24 - December 26, 2021
By Daniel Garris
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| Monday Update: |
| After a stronger than expected Sunday hold, updated studio estimates now place the weekend performance of Spider-Man: No Way Home at an estimated $84.525 million. That represents the ninth largest
second weekend gross of all-time and the third largest weekend gross for any frame since the re-opening of domestic theatres (behind only the film's opening weekend last weekend and the opening weekend of fellow Sony release Venom: Let There Be Carnage). |
| Meanwhile, Universal's Sing 2 came in lower than its weekend estimate with $22.326 million. That places the film's total gross at $39.55 million. |
| Other weekend actuals and updated studio estimate for the frame include The King's Man ($5.916 million), American Underdog ($5.890 million), West Side Story ($2.847 million),
A Journal for Jordan ($2.200 million), Licorice Pizza ($1.912 million), Encanto ($1.814 million), 83 ($1.689 million), Ghostbusters: Afterlife ($1.225 million),
Nightmare Alley ($1.179 million) and House of Gucci ($0.915 million). |
| The updated five-day estimate for The Matrix Resurrections stands at $21.2 million, which is even lower than the film's studio estimate from Sunday. |
| Weekend Estimates Update: |
| Sony's Spider-Man: No Way Home took in an estimated $81.50 million this weekend to easily lead the box office for a second consecutive frame. Spider-Man: No Way Home did decline a very sharp 69 percent
from last weekend's historic debut, in part from this weekend's Christmas marketplace as a whole not expanding as much as it typically does. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in combination with Christmas Day falling on Saturday, looks to have
limited the amount of more casual moviegoers who typically show up over Christmas weekend. Spider-Man: No Way Home also took an added hit this weekend from losing a significant percentage of its showtimes from last weekend
(including some of its IMAX shows to The Matrix Resurrections). Even with this weekend's percentage decline in mind, Spider-Man: No Way Home still easily registered the largest second weekend gross since the re-opening of
domestic theatres (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was the previous record-holder with $34.70 million) and also had the largest weekend ever for a weekend with Christmas Eve falling during the frame
(2017's Star Wars: The Last Jedi previously held the high-mark with $71.57 million). The second weekend performance of Spider-Man: No Way Home represents the ninth largest second weekend gross of all-time. |
| In the bigger picture, Spider-Man: No Way Home zoomed past the $400 million domestic mark this weekend and has grossed a massive $467.33 million through just ten days of release. That already makes
Spider-Man: No Way Home the largest unadjusted grossing film ever for Sony and represents the third largest ten-day start of all-time (behind only 2019's Avengers: Endgame and 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens). With
exceptional word of mouth (the film received an A+ rating on CinemaScore), the continuing holiday period and the marketplace not having received a more typical inflated Christmas boost this weekend, Spider-Man: No Way Home is likely
to hold up much better this coming week. Domestic IMAX screens were responsible for an estimated $5.5 million of this weekend's overall gross, which pushes the domestic IMAX total for Spider-Man: No Way Home to over $38 million. |
| This weekend also saw Spider-Man: No Way Home surpass the $1 billion milestone; making the film the first Hollywood film to reach the milestone since the re-opening of theatres. Internationally,
Spider-Man: No Way Home took in an estimated $121.4 million from 61 markets, which places the film's international total at $587.1 million and global haul at $1.054 billion. According to Sony, Spider-Man: No Way Home was
down 57 percent over the weekend itself internationally, as Spider-Man: No Way Home held up better internationally than it did domestically this weekend. Spider-Man: No Way Home debuted with an estimated $3.5 million in
Thailand this weekend. Additional total grosses for the film through Sunday by market include $68.9 million in the United Kingdom, $52.8 million in Mexico, $41.1 million in South Korea, $35.8 million in France, $31.7 million in Brazil,
$31.4 million in Australia, $29.7 million in India, $28.5 million in Russia, $21.2 million in Italy, $20.0 million in Germany, $16.5 million in Spain, $13.0 million in Hong Kong, $12.5 million in Taiwan, $10.8 million in Argentina and
$10.0 million in Malaysia. Upcoming international openings for Spider-Man: No Way Home include Japan on Friday, January 7 and the Philippines on Saturday, January 8 and Norway on Friday, January 14. Global IMAX grosses for
Spider-Man: No Way Home currently total an estimated $61.5 million. |
| Universal's Sing 2 was easily the weekend's strongest new opener with an estimated second place take of $23.76 million. The computer animated sequel from Illumination Entertainment opened on Wednesday and
has totaled $41.01 million to date (including an estimated $1.6 million from early preview shows back over Thanksgiving weekend). While Sing 2 was off to a nice start this weekend
(especially in comparison to the weekend's other new releases), the film did open 27 percent below the $55.87 million five-day start of 2016's Sing (which also had Christmas Eve fall during its opening weekend). And while
Sing 2 shouldn't have a problem ultimately out-grossing Disney's Encanto domestically (likely by a substantial amount), the five-day start of Sing 2 coming in nearly on par with the $40.57 million five-day start
of Encanto is nonetheless somewhat underwhelming given the apparent greater pre-release anticipation for Sing 2. With regard to the overall current theatrical landscape, a sizable percentage of potential family audiences
clearly remain hesitant to return to theatres. |
| The audience breakdown for Sing 2 skewed 54 percent female, 46 percent male and 64 percent towards family audiences. On the average, critical reviews for Sing 2 have been good, but not great. The
film looks to be going over far better with audiences, as like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Sing 2 received an A+ rating on CinemaScore (the original Sing received an A rating on CinemaScore). Going forward,
Sing 2 should also be helped out greatly by no new computer animated films currently being scheduled for wide release until Disney and Pixar's Turning Red enters the marketplace on March 11. |
| Internationally, Sing 2 grossed an estimated $19.2 million this weekend. That places the film's international total at $24.8 million and current global total at $65.8 million. With previews included, this
weekend saw Sing 2 start out with $6.0 million in France, $3.6 million in Mexico, $2.4 million in Russia, $1.6 million in Spain, $1.3 million in Australia and $0.9 million in Italy. |
| Meanwhile, Warner's The Matrix Resurrections was off to a lackluster third place start this weekend with an estimated $12.00 million. The five day-start for the fourth installment of The Matrix
franchise stands at just $22.50 million. The Matrix Resurrections was actually off to a so-so start on Wednesday with $6.4 million (especially since the film didn't have Tuesday preview shows), but has displayed poor initial
holding power since Thursday. A number of factors clearly limited potential for The Matrix Resurrections this weekend, including releasing the film day-and-date theatrically and via streaming on HBO Max, the film receiving a
relatively modest amount of showtimes for a film of its size at many locations, critical reviews being good, but not great on the average and early word of mouth among audiences being mixed (at best), as the film received a modest B- rating
on CinemaScore (the lowest rating ever for a Matrix film). But more than anything, opening The Matrix Resurrections only five days after Spider-Man: No Way Home proved too high of a hurdle for
The Matrix Resurrections to overcome. |
| The audience breakdown for The Matrix Resurrections skewed 61 percent male, 39 percent female, a sizable 82 percent over the age of 25 and only 18 percent under the age of 25. Clearly, younger adults and
older teens aren't that interested in the Matrix property, at least enough to see The Matrix Resurrections in theatres. The Matrix Resurrections grossed an estimated $3.7 million from domestic IMAX screens over the
five-day frame, which represented a significant 16 percent of the film's overall five-day gross. |
| While this weekend's international performance for The Matrix Resurrections wasn't great, it was at least more respectable than the film's domestic performance. The film grossed an estimated $35.2 million
internationally this weekend from 75 markets. That brings the international total for The Matrix Resurrections to $47.3 million and the current global haul for the film to $69.8 million. Estimated totals by market for
The Matrix Resurrections through Sunday include $7.1 million in Japan, $5.9 million in Russia, $3.9 million in the United Kingdom, $3.1 million in France, $2.2 million in Mexico, $1.7 million in Germany and $1.5 million in
Hong Kong. The Matrix Resurrections still has a small number of international markets to open in, including Italy this coming Saturday (January 1) and China on Friday, January 14. |
| Disney's release of 20th Century's The King's Man started out in fourth with respective three-day weekend and five-day estimates of $6.35 million and $10.01 million. That was below the film's already
modest pre-release expectations. Anticipation for The King's Man (a prequel) wasn't anywhere near the anticipation levels for the film's two predecessors to begin with and opening the film in the same marketplace as
Spider-Man: No Way Home and to a lesser extent The Matrix Resurrections obviously didn't help matters. One positive for The King's Man this weekend was that the film was less front-loaded towards Wednesday and Thursday
than both The Matrix Resurrections and Sing 2 were (especially since The King's Man had Tuesday previews). That could be a good early sign for The King's Man going forward. Critical reviews for
The King's Man have tended to be negative, but the film looks to be going over significantly better with audiences after receiving a solid B+ rating on CinemaScore. The audience breakdown for The King's Man skewed
65 percent male, 35 percent female, 66 percent towards moviegoers over 25 and 34 percent towards moviegoers under 25. |
| Internationally, The King's Man grossed an estimated $6.9 million from just 7 markets this weekend, including $3.5 million in South Korea and $2.1 million in Japan. That places the film's global start at
$16.9 million. The King's Man opens in the United Kingdom today (December 26) and will open in additional markets in the coming week, including France, Spain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and
Taiwan (among others). |
| Lionsgate's American Underdog is neck-and-neck with The King's Man over the three-day weekend, with an estimated $6.20 million (from just two days of release). While it had lower expectations to
begin with, American Underdog performed more in line with its consensus expectations than most other films did this weekend. Critical reviews for American Underdog have been good and the film looks to be going over even
better with audiences after receiving an excellent A+ rating on CinemaScore. The audience breakdown for American Underdog skewed 52 percent male, 48 percent female, 79 percent over the age of 25 and 21 percent under the age of 25.
American Underdog is appealing to faith-based audiences and sports fans alike and will have a strong chance of holding up very well going forward. |
| Estimated grosses for films in the bottom half of this weekend's top ten include $2.80 million for Disney and 20th Century's West Side Story (which stabilized this weekend by declining only 23 percent),
$2.33 million for United Artists Releasing and MGM's Licorice Pizza (upon expanding to a semi-wide 786 locations on Saturday), $2.20 million for Sony's A Journal for Jordan (which opened in 2,500 locations on Saturday) and $2.00 million
for Disney's Encanto (which was down a very sharp 69 percent from last weekend, upon facing new direct competition from Sing 2 and arriving on Disney+ on Friday). Respective total grosses stand at $88.28 million for
Encanto, at $23.92 million for West Side Story and at $3.67 million for Licorice Pizza. |
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Weekend Studio Estimates for December 24 - December 26, 2021.
| Rank | Film | Distributor | Weekend Gross | Locations | Location Average |
%Change | Total Gross | TG ÷ OW | Week |
| 1 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | Sony / Columbia | $81,500,000 | 4,336 | $18,796 | -68.7% | $467,332,000 | 1.796 | 2 |
| 2 | Sing 2 | Universal | $23,760,000 | 3,892 | $6,105 | NEW | $41,005,000 | 1.726 | 1 |
| 3 | The Matrix Resurrections | Warner Bros. | $12,000,000 | 3,552 | $3,378 | NEW | $22,500,000 | 1.875 | 1 |
| 4 | The King's Man | Disney / 20th Century | $6,350,000 | 3,180 | $1,997 | NEW | $10,009,631 | 1.576 | 1 |
| 5 | American Underdog | Lionsgate / Kingdom Story | $6,200,000 | 2,813 | $2,204 | NEW | $6,200,000 | 1.000 | 1 |
| 6 | West Side Story | Disney / 20th Century | $2,800,000 | 2,810 | $996 | -23.4% | $23,915,766 | 2.262 | 3 |
| 7 | Licorice Pizza | United Artists / MGM | $2,328,000 | 786 | $2,962 | +2,610.2% | $3,666,819 | 1.576 | 5 |
| 8 | A Journal for Jordan | Sony / Columbia | $2,200,000 | 2,500 | $880 | NEW | $2,200,000 | 1.000 | 1 |
| 9 | Encanto | Disney | $2,000,000 | 2,800 | $714 | -69.2% | $88,277,840 | 3.245 | 5 |
| 10 | 83 | Reliance Entertainment | $1,761,479 | 481 | $3,662 | NEW | $1,761,479 | 1.000 | 1 |
| 11 | Nightmare Alley | Disney / Searchlight | $1,300,000 | 2,135 | $609 | -53.8% | $5,401,626 | 1.921 | 2 |
| 12 | Ghostbusters: Afterlife | Sony / Columbia | $1,235,000 | 1,728 | $715 | -63.8% | $120,460,000 | 2.737 | 6 |
| House of Gucci | United Artists / MGM | $922,000 | 907 | $1,017 | -53.6% | $47,161,866 | 3.270 | 5 | |
| Eternals | Disney | $218,000 | 360 | $606 | -81.9% | $164,500,534 | 2.307 | 8 | |
| Red Rocket | A24 | $150,705 | 377 | $400 | +86.6% | $372,478 | 2.472 | 3 | |
| Parallel Mothers | Sony Pictures Classics | $41,076 | 3 | $13,692 | NEW | $41,076 | 1.000 | 1 | |
| The French Dispatch | Disney / Searchlight | $40,000 | 70 | $571 | -64.5% | $15,925,226 | 6.120 | 10 | |
| Belfast | Focus | $25,000 | 77 | $325 | -70.5% | $6,831,520 | 3.839 | 7 | |
| Drive My Car | Janus Films / Slideshow | $19,172 | 16 | $1,198 | -56.3% | $271,848 | 4.559 | 5 | |
| C'Mon C'Mon | A24 | $18,673 | 49 | $381 | -52.0% | $1,819,699 | 3.939 | 6 | |
| The Velvet Queen | Oscilloscope | $4,276 | 2 | $2,138 | NEW | $6,438 | 1.506 | 1 |
Box office grosses can be reported to BoxOfficeReport via email at: daniel@boxofficereport.com
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