Thanks to an intriguing, well marketed premise, Krampus managed to exceed expectations and take the best Post-Thanksgiving weekend since 2004’s The Last Samurai. However, first place still went to Mockingjay Part 2, Creed saw a solid second weekend hold, while The Good Dinosaur crashed.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 took first place yet again with a $18.6M third weekend, once again the lowest of the series. That’s a sharp yet unsurprising 64% drop, average for a big Thanksgiving blockbuster. The films new total is $227M, and it will probably wind up with under $250M after being destroyed by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in just two weeks. Considering that the previous installment grossed over $340M domestic, this is a pretty significant drop off, and a somewhat disappointing gross for the ‘grand finale’ to such a massive franchise.

Krampus opened in second place with a stronger than expected $16M. Considering there really aren’t any films to compare it to, it had a fairly great weekend. Most expectations had it at barely over $10M, so a weekend of over $15M for a low budget horror comedy is a great result, especially on such a slow weekend. The films comedic trailer and unique Christmas setting generated quite a bit of interest, leading to a much stronger result for a film that may have been ignored on another weekned. The film was originally slated to be released over Thanksgiving, which likely would’ve cut its gross significantly with so many other choices. Universal does deserve some credit for getting such a strange and seemingly unmarketable film to a second place nationwide debut. It received a B- Cinemascore, which is fine given that many audiences weren’t sure if the film was supposed to be funny or serious. Films that have confusion from general audiences typically get slammed by Cinemascore, so a B- is good enough. Online word of mouth has been fairly solid, and as it is a very different film from anything else out right now, it could wind up with over $40M domestically.

Creed saw an above average hold for a Thanksgiving release, down just 48% to $15.5M in its second weekend. Considering that it was going after a pre-established fanbase, this is a very good hold. Now that it’s up to $65M, there is a solid chance that it could wind up with $100M domestic.

Last weekends biggest new release, The Good Dinosaur, didn’t save face after a soft opening. The film crashed 60%, which is bad even by Thanksgiving animated releases. This guarantees a gross of under $200M, which makes it the lowest grossing Pixar film by a wide margin. In fact, the film may wind up with a total of around $120M, which is less than Inside Out made in its first week.

Spike Lee’s new film Chi-Raq opened in 13th place with a mediocre $1.25M from 305 theaters, giving it a per theater average of around $4K. That isn’t a particularly great start, but the film didn’t receive a huge marketing push which makes this somewhat unsurprising.

That wasn’t as bad as The Letters, however, which bombed with just $802K from 886 theaters, giving it an awful per theater average of just $905.

As far as new limited release films, Youth saw a strong $20K per theater average from 4 theaters, but Macbeth was far less impressive, grossing just $13.5K average from 5 theaters. Given the films very prestigious nature and inclusion of Michael Fassbender, this is a bit of a headscratcher as to why it didn’t perform better. Especially given the arthouse crowd the film was very clearly going after. It may receive a mild expansion, but will likely disappear from the domestic box office without a trace.

More from Bombs and Blockbusters

Weekend Forecast: “Krampus: to Capitalize on Post-Thanksgiving Food Coma

https://bombsandblockbusters.wordpress.com/2015/12/04/weekend-forecast-krampus-to-capitalize-on-post-thanksgiving-food-coma/

Krampus – Movie Review

https://bombsandblockbusters.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/krampus-movie-review/