RankTitleDomestic Gross (Weekend)Worldwide Gross (Cume)Week #Percentage ChangeBudget1Aquaman$51,550,000$748,785,0002-23.5%$200M2Mary Poppins Returns$28,019,000$173,329,7582+19.1%$130M3Bumblebee$20,500,000$156,778,0202-5.3%$135M4Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse$18,315,000$213,243,7303+11.2%$90M5The Mule$11,780,000$60,738,4653+24.0%$50MNotable Box Office StoriesChristmas Rundown - Christmas is one of the best single days of every box office year which then basically repeats every day until New Year's. I'll cover Aquaman, Holmes & Watson, and Vice in more detail below but let's go through the other notable Christmas releases and how they fared. First up let's talk Mary Poppins Returns, the film that was the most in dire need of a Christmas miracle after it opened to just $23.5M last weekend at a budget of $130M. The film, which is the long awaited sequel to the 1964 Disney classic, just hasn't had the same massive global impact Disney was likely expecting, but it did have a pretty good Christmas where it scored $11.4M. Also, it had a $28M second weekend with is a rise of 19% from it's previous weekend. It has now grossed almost $100M domestic, so Poppins seems to be out of the domestic flop range but it still has a long way to go for a great run. Meanwhile Bumblebee is not fairing as well. While it did scored a $20.5M second weekend it only managed an $8.8M Christmas and ends the Christmas run with just $66M domestic on a $135M budget. One just has to look at the pitiful state of Bumblebee merch to see how poorly this film is fairing with the general public. Despite being better acclaimed than every other Transformers movie it seems that audiences are just too burned on the franchise to care.Christmas Rundown (cont.) - Speaking of acclaimed films trying to find their audience, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is one of the most acclaimed films of any medium this year but has not had the same kind of run you'd expect for such a beloved film. Christmas was rough for Spidey, scoring just $5.6M but it had an okay third weekend where it gained 11.2% for $18.3M, which pushed it over $100M domestic. That at least will give Spiderverse some good bargaining power for its next run on home video where frankly it will have to make most of its money. Look maybe in your family you watch some pleb Christmas garbage like It's a Wonderful Life but in my house we watch Clint Eastwood grumble about pecans and clearly we are not alone. The Mule has had a quietly great run this Christmas season where it made $4.9M on Christmas day and had a 24% gain this weekend for a $11.7M haul. The film has already passed its $50M budget domestically and could hold as the adult counter-programming choice in the dead month of January to come. Small last note, most films gain on this weekend but the one film that dropped was The Grinch which dropped 50.3% to come in with $4.2M this weekend. This shows how Christmas movies have a very specific shelf life and after Christmas no one wants to watch Christmas movies. Thankfully The Grinch was smart and released in early November so by the time that drop happened it had already grossed over $250M domestic.Aquaman - Of course the big winner of the Christmas season is Bird Box memes. No it's Aquaman which has taken that sweet Avatar/Star Wars spot and swam with it all the way to the water bank...I'm so tired. The film won Christmas day with $22M, almost double the second highest grossing film of that day (Mary Poppins Returns with $11.4M). While it was one of the few films that dropped this weekend, it was pretty small with 22% drop to come in with $51.5M. Worldwide though the film is just massive with a whopping 75% of its now $748M gross coming from overseas. While the film has yet to surpass any of the other DCEU films domestically, it has already surpassed the lifetime worldwide gross of Justice League, Suicide Squad, and Man of Steel in just one month of release. At its current rate the film could very well be the first DCEU film to crack $1B worldwide but it will in some part rely on the US. Every DCEU film besides Justice League has made at least $300M domestic and Aquaman could very well do it too, but it needs to keep being the single choice for families and teens for the next month which is quite possible with limited options and being so much ahead of the rest of the Christmas bloodbath.Vice - And now finally we get to the two new releases which did not exactly ignite the Christmas time box office but did find their own spots. First up is Vice, the biopic of former US Vice President Dick Chenney from now political firebrand director Adam McKay that was something of a final gamble for already in trouble Annapurna pictures. The film carries a shockingly large budget for a modern biopic with $60M and was hoping to become something of the political talking point of the Christmas season. It didn't quite do that as it debuted on Christmas with $4.7M and ended its week long run with $17.6M. Not exactly an incredible debut for the rather pricey film. Part of that is likely that many in the US are already sick of politics. Hell just this Christmas had its own political firestorm with the government shutdown. And then there are the reviews which are wildly all over the place with some praising it's biting satire and wit and some calling it pretentious and smug garbage. Mostly the whole thing just feels muted and Vice needs a lot more attention put on it for it to stick around in such a crowded marketplace.Holmes & Watson - Ah yes here it, the film that brought families together by having them all walk out of the theater in mutual horror and disgust. Perhaps it should have been apparent by the very telling sign of not a single review being posted by the time the film was released on Christmas but the reviews for this Will Ferrel and John C. Reilly led comedic take on the Sherlock Holmes characters were just awful. The film currently has a whopping 8% on Rotten Tomatoes, but in a shocking Christmas miracle audiences and critics could actually agree on something, as the film received a terrible D+ rating on Cinemascore and inspired a rash of meme responses about walking out of the theater on social media. It almost became a 2018 Christmas tradition to see this film and then demand your money back. The effects of this insane backlash were felt almost immediately. While the film opened fine on Christmas to $6.4M it dropped immediately by the 26th to $3.4M and then on the 27th to $2.4M. Remember the insane thing about this week is you basically repeat your Christmas day numbers every single day until New Year's. However the response was so vicious that it didn't happen for this film. It will be so fascinating to see how bad it drops next weekend. People love Christmas joy but we are also creatures of schadenfreude and I think there's a deep part of us that can't wait to watch this garbage fire burn.Oscar Movie Round-Up - It's the final qualifying week for Oscar movies so a few of them snuck in under the wire to get their qualifying on. However we are going to start with a film that's been out for a bit but has had just wonderful expansions. If Beale Street Could Talk added 60 theaters for a total of 65 where it made $759K, a per theater average of $11.6K. The film has just done very well in limited release despite not being quite the same insane critics darling and Oscar contender of the director's previous film Moonlight. Expect it to continue this very slow rollout into January. Okay on to the new. On the Basis of Sex opened this week in 33 theaters to $690K, a per theater average of $20.9K. Early in the year this seemed to be a lock for a big Best Actress win on subject matter alone. The biopic about Ruth Bader Ginsberg came out the same year as her smash documentary hit RBG and when major portions of the American people have been F5ing on her health updates all year. However, the film itself has not received the best reviews and lead Felicity Jones has had none of the precursor noms for a Best Actress nomination at the Oscars. While this opening shows interest in the subject matter, without a big win for Jones in the next few weeks it could struggle. Now while everyone was trashing John C. Reilly's bigger release this Christmas, a more acclaimed film starring him opened this week. Stan & Ollie opened in 5 theaters to $79.6K, a per theater average of $15.9K. While the film has gotten good reviews for the portrayals of comedic film icons Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly respectively, it just has not had the kind of massive Oscar heavy push it needed to squeeze either one into a major acting race, which again could make it struggle in the coming weeks. And one last time with this, another early contender for Best Actress that has just fallen out of favor is Destroyer which opened this week in 3 theaters this week to $58.4K, a per theater average of $19.4K. The film starring Nicole Kidman in an transformative role as a grizzled cop has not been the hottest film for critics but was an early festival favorite for best actress. But once again the push has been light and this film just has not gotten the precursors it needs for a major upset at the Oscars.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 #Venom$174,338$213,205,181$855,156,907$100M13A Star is Born (2018)$818,000$201,041,727$388,741,727$36M13First Man$31,075$44,891,255$100,261,118$59M12Bohemian Rhapsody$4,024,717$189,106,515$702,451,741$52M9Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald$2,027,000$156,649,713$627,549,713$200M7Notable Film ClosingsTitleDomestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetCrazy Rich Asians$174,016,156$238,016,156$30MAs 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: http://bit.ly/2rSmMyn via /r/movies http://bit.ly/2RljYYV
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