This Weekend @ The Box Office: 2016.Nov.27

Disney's Moana topped the extended holiday box office with the second largest five-day Thanksgiving opening of all-time and the third largest three-day Thanksgiving opening of all-time, leading a top twelve that grossed a combined $173 million. Moana was, however, the only real success story among new wide releases as Allied and Bad Santa 2 fell short of expectations and Rules Don't Apply delivered the worst wide opening of 2016. Other bright spots are to be found, though, in the likes of holdovers such as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Doctor Strange and Arrival as well as a solid expansion for Amazon and Roadside's Manchester by the Sea.

At the top, Disney's latest animated adventure Moana delivered an estimated $55.5 million three-day opening and an estimated $81.1 million five-day opening. As already noted, the five-day opening ranks as the second largest Thanksgiving debut ever behind Disney's Frozen ($93.6m five-day) and just ahead of Toy Story 2 ($80.1m five-day). As a result, Disney now owns nine of the top ten five-day and three-day Thanksgiving weekend openings with New Line's Four Christmases as the lone non-Disney feature within the top ten on each respective list. Moana's three-day weekend is also the third largest opening for Walt Disney Animation Studios, behind only Zootopia and Big Hero 6, both of which opened on Friday and should Moana's three-day gross come in $700,000 higher than estimated it would surpass Big Hero 6 on that list.

Moana's demographic breakdown was 45% male vs. 55% female with 34% of the audience coming in 12 years or under, 43% over the age of 25 and 72% of the audience made up of families. Opening day audiences gave the film an "A" CinemaScore.
Internationally, Moana opened in a handful of territories earning an estimated $16.3 million, including an estimated $12.3 million in China, where it opened on November 25, for a global opening totaling $97.4 million. Next weekend sees openings in France, Spain, UK, Russia and Mexico along with Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, Iceland, South Africa, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Paraguay and Peru.

In second position for the weekend is WB's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which delivered an excellent $45.1 million three-day and a $65.76 million five-day performance bringing the film's domestic cume to an estimated $156.2 million after ten days in release. Additionally, the film added $132 million internationally this weekend, fueled by openings in China and Japan where it brought in an estimated $41.1 million and $15.5 million respectively. The film's global cume now stands at $473.7 million ranking thirteenth among all of 2016 releases. The three-day opening in China surpasses the lifetime grosses of all other films in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World franchise in that territory outside of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 ($60.8m).

Finishing third is another holdover and another film from Disney, this time Marvel's Doctor Strange, which pulled in an estimated $13.36 million three-day weekend and an estimated $18.85 million five-day haul as the film's domestic cume now stands at $205 million. Strange is now the tenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to gross over $200 million domestically as it has already surpassed the entire domestic run of Thor, Ant-Man, Captain America: The First Avenger and The Incredible Hulk and is just $1.3 million shy of topping Thor: The Dark World.

Additionally, Doctor Strange currently places ninth among all 2016 domestic releases and with an estimated $9.8 million internationally this weekend its global cume now stands at $615.9 million placing it ninth among all 2016 releases worldwide with a January 2017 opening in Japan still in the offing.

Fourth position is where we find Paramount's Allied, the second of this weekend's new wide releases in the top ten, finishing with an estimated $13 million three-day and $18 million five-day opening. While this is within industry expectations heading into the weekend, the fact this one wasn't able to top $20 million is a disappointment, especially given the $85 million production budget. For director Robert Zemeckis this is the second disappointment in a row on the heels of The Walk last year, which could only muster $10.1 million domestically and $61.1 million worldwide on a $35 million budget. The film played to an audience that was 51% male vs 49% female of which 85% were over the age of 25. Opening day audiences gave it a "B" CinemaScore.

Internationally, Allied opened in 23 markets and brought in an estimated $9.3 million, which includes $2.8 million in France, $1.6 million in the U.K. and $1.3 million in Spain. Fortunately, it still has openings in China (Nov 30), Russia (Dec 1), Germany (Dec 22) and Australia (Dec 26) still in the future to help pad the worldwide gross.

Paramount is enjoying greater success with their sci-fi drama Arrival, which dipped just 7.3% in its third weekend, delivering an estimated $11.25 million over the three-day and $15.6 million for the five day as its domestic gross now totals $62.38 million on a $47 million budget. Internationally Arrival added an estimated $6.2 million this weekend from 36 territories bringing its international total to $30.9 million for a global cume of $93.28 million.

It isn't until eighth position where we find Broadgreen and Miramax's release of Bad Santa 2. The comedy sequel could only manage an estimated $6.1 million for the three-day and $9 million for the five-day opening in 2,920 theaters, but as bad as that may be for the $26 million feature things were worse for Fox's Rules Don't Apply.

Debuting in 2,382 theaters, Rules Don't Apply delivered an estimated $1.57 million three-day weekend and $2.17 million five-day. The three-day result is the worst wide-opening of 2016, averaging just $661 per theater, and the sixth worst opening all-time for a film debuting in 2,000+ theaters. Truth is, this is just a film that's out of its element in today's marketplace and it didn't have much of a chance in this many theaters. It also doesn't help critics didn't embrace it to the point it earned a 57% rating on RottenTomatoes and with a "B-" CinemaScore it won't be receiving much buzz via word of mouth. The film played to an audience that was 55% female vs 45% male of which 85% were over the age of 25. Additionally, 71% of the audience was Caucasian, 13% Hispanic and 9% African American.

Elsewhere, Universal's Almost Christmas enjoyed a nice weekend as the only film in the top ten to show a positive change from last weekend, delivering an estimated $7.6 million three-day, up ~5% from last weekend as its cume now stands at $36.7 million on a $17 million budget.

Finishing ninth, Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge dropped 18.3% for an estimated $5.45 million three-day, bringing its domestic cume to $52.2 million.

Outside the top ten, Focus' Loving brought in an estimated $1.69 million from 421 theaters (+284) bringing the film's cume to just over $4 million as it continues its expansion. Manchester by the Sea delivered an estimated $1.25 million as it expanded into 48 theaters (+4) for a $26,048 per theater average and a cume that now stands at $1.65 million.

Among new limited releases, The Weinstein Co.'s Lion delivered an estimated $128,368 from four theaters for a $32,092 per theater average; EuropaCorp's Miss Sloane brought in an estimated $63,000 from three theaters; and Reliance's release of Dear Zindagi brought in an estimated $1 million from 153 theaters over the three-day weekend and $1.5 million for the five-day.

Additionally, IFC's Evolution brought in $6,927 from three theaters ($2,309 PTA) and Music Box's release of Seasons brought in $26,723 from 13 theaters ($2,056 PTA).

Next weekend features one lone wide release with High Top's Incarnate, a new horror from BH Tilt from director Brad Peyton (San Andreas) starring Carice van Houten and Aaron Eckhart. The film is debuting in ~1,500 theaters. Additionally, Fox Searchlight will begin the rollout of the Oscar hopeful Jackie starring Natalie Portman in five theaters.

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