RankTitleDomestic Gross (Weekend)Worldwide Gross (Cume)Week #Percentage ChangeBudget1Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald$62,200,000$253,200,0001N/A$200M2Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018)$38,165,000$151,744,2802-43.5%$75M3Bohemian Rhapsody$15,700,000$384,330,4873-49.7%$52M4Instant Family$14,700,000$14,700,0001N/A$48M5Widows$12,300,000$19,608,0281N/A$42MNotable Box Office StoriesFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - So many beasts, so many crimes, but it still wasn't enough as Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (the second in the FB franchise and the 10th film in overall Wizarding World franchise) opened to a pretty underwhelming #1 with $62.2M. That's not only a $12M decrease from the opening of the original FB film but it is also the worst domestic opening ever for a Wizarding World film. However, overseas the film faired better than its predecessor with a much more healthy $191M opening, a significant jump up from the $145.5M worldwide opening of the first FB film. It's still a far cry from the opening of the last four Harry Potter films which earned more over ten years ago (feel old) when the foreign market was much less powerful than it is now. The $191M was mostly lead by China ($37.5M) but also scored well in European countries like France ($11.7M) and Germany ($12.8M).Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (cont.) - Looking ahead it's not super easy for FB to keep a strong hold. Thanksgiving will be the key as whether families chose this film or the bevy of new releases including Ralph Breaks the Internet, Creed II, and Green Book. FB certainly takes the lead as the most expensive and blockbustery of the bunch and the first FB film, which was released on the same weekend, had a good 39.4% drop on Thanksgiving weekend. However what is not in its favor is the critics reviews as this was the worst reviewed film of any in the Wizarding World franchise. Even more notable, this is the first Wizarding World film to ever score below an A on Cinemascore with a B+ rating, so this may not have the legs of the others. Just in general it feels like the mood has been soured, as there seems to be a notable reaction against J.K Rowling's attempts to retcon the series. Not to mention the Johnny Depp of it all as well as concerns about the treatment of queer relationships. Not to say it's some big controversial hot potato, just that it feels a little more grim than the usual excitement around one of these films.Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (cont.) - I'm not trying to make it sound like Crimes of Grindelwald is some massive failure, far from it. But this downward slope in domestic is troubling especially with three more very expensive films on the horizon. The idea was Fantastic Beasts was this direct pipeline from J.K. to the fans but if the fans start rejecting it then WB has a real problem on their hands. I mean when a Halloween film opens higher than your second FB film, something seems wrong. And maybe it's not this one that's the bomb but we see what happens when you try to make your big finale to a franchise that isn't working. You get Justice League or you get The Divergent Series: Allegiant. That's the much bigger concern here. But the overseas potential at least seems to be growing and perhaps that's just how they will keep going. But the issue even further down the line is if this series is done with and no one cares about it afterwards. This is supposed to be WB's huge marketing moneymaker with theme parks and merch and video games and the like. If there isn't that ravenous love like before with Harry Potter then there's no room for growth. And in Hollywood growth is all that matters. I dunno how to end this so I'll say Jude Law's Dumbledore is hot and I dunno how to feel about it.Instant Family - Oh Instant Family, your title is begging me to make ramen jokes. Well the picante beef flavored title aside the family dramedy opened this week to a poor #4 with $14.7M. The Mark Wahlberg led film about foster adoption is a slight departure from Whalberg's more brazen Adam McKay comedies and tries to pitch him as a funny and lovable dad type. The results were warmly received by critics, but audiences just either are hesitant to see the softer side of Marky Mark or they just didn't get the memo this film exists. Now usually for a film like this, especially as it goes into the family driven filmgoing week that is Thanksgiving, that low open would be fine against a smallish budget. However surprisingly the film carries a budget of almost $50M, with certainly a huge chunk of that going directly to the Markster himself. So the film has a lot of ground to cover. The good news is it scored a great A rating on Cinemascore so the real test now is if great word of mouth gives it a significant boost in Thanksgiving but remember it's one of 6(!) new releases that are coming out wide in just one week, not to mention the usual distractions of Thanksgiving of football and yelling at your grandma to accept that you are sexually attracted to Jude Law as Dumbledore and she needs to accept that if she really loved you.Widows - More like Widowed at the box office...I made myself sad. The crime drama starring all the actors flopped, opening to a pretty bad #5 with $12.3M. The long awaited follow up from acclaimed director Steve McQueen to his 2013 critical and commercial success 12 Years a Slave was an attempt from him to make a more commercial vehicle based on a once popular British series of the same name. It was a long time passion project for him but despite great critical reviews and festival buzz there was just no love from the audience. This could be do to the marketing (said one of my friends "you like that movie? It looks terrible!") which focused more on intense shootouts and thrills but what audiences got instead was a deeply dark crime drama dealing with themes of racial violence, domestic abuse, and gentrification. This could easily explain the pretty rough B rating the film got on Cinemascore which likely shows a lack of interest in this film, especially as more family friendly stuff will drown it out during the Thanksgiving weekend. If only it had a hot daddy Dumbledore, maybe then it could have had a shot.Oscar Movie Round-Up - Oh yeah it's Oscar season baby, let's get to all the depressing films we got to look forward to! First up is Boy Erased which had the best expansion this week. The film gained 332 theaters for a total of over 400 where it earned $1.2M this weekend, a per theater average of $3,130. That's a pretty solid expansion and might mean the film is stepping out from its peer Beautiful Boy as the more 'it' conversation of the moment. However in a year where the big releases like A Star is Born and the upcoming Vice and The Mule feel like they will suck up all the oxygen, it's hard to know how these smaller races that are mostly vying for acting awards will pan out. Speaking of those big releases Green Book is set to come out this Thanksgiving and hopes to become a late entry spoiler much like Hidden Figures a few years back. The film opened in 25 theaters this weekend to $312,000, a per theater average of $12,480. That's a pretty solid number and could mean the hype about GB hasn't been overdone. The film, about a white driver taking a black pianist through a tour of the deep South of the USA during the 60s, was a surprise winner of the people's choice award at the Toronto International Film Awards. This award is often a precursor to the Oscars as nine of the last ten winners have been Best Picture nominees, with three of those winning the big prize. So the fact this film that many wrote off beat much more obvious contenders like A Star is Born and Roma spoke a lot to its potential. If Green Book has the same kind of major run as Hidden Figures it could really change the conversation of the race. Finally, this week saw the first release of At Eternity's Gate, the Vincent van Gogh biopic which opened in 4 theaters to $92K, a per theater average of $23K. The film has received solid reviews and is a potential best actor race for Willem Dafoe who felt like a potential lock for best supporting for last year's The Florida Project until Sam Rockwell dominated at the end. That kind of recent loss is actually often good for the next race as it can start to feel like someone is due, especially Dafoe who has never won before despite giving the greatest performance of all time in Spider-man. One factor though that seems to be catching up to the film is that Dafoe is 63 and van Gogh was 37 when he committed suicide. While I don't doubt van Gogh was a hard looking 37 that age gap does feel noticeable when he's near more age appropriate people like Oscar Issac in the film. And that opening is just not special enough to really propel the film forward so this might be one race that already feels dead unless it can pick up some major noms in the coming weeks. I'll tell you who's not too old tho. Jude Law as Dumbledore. Yes please!Films Reddit Wants to FollowThis is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.TitleDomestic Gross (Weekly)Domestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetWeek #Incredibles 2$166,736$608,413,195$1,239,568,617$200M23Crazy Rich Asians$313,126$173,604,544$236,104,544$30M14Venom$6,717,440$210,031,043$780,531,043$100M7A Star is Born (2018)$11,480,519$185,840,907$340,740,907$36M7First Man$1,288,605$44,101,310$96,401,310$59M6Notable Film ClosingsTitleDomestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetOperation Finale$17,612,099$17,612,099$24MAs always r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at r/moviesboxoffice (which have recently been updated).My Letterboxd: https://ift.tt/2Q79jjT via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2OP9oUJ
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