It's no longer summer and not yet the end-of-year holiday blitz, yet somehow we ended up with three great movies opening on one weekend, each of them taking one of the top three box office spots.
It's no surprise that Doctor Strange landed at number one, banking $84 million. The latest Marvel movie had already banked enough to recover its $165 million price tag in foreign sales. The total is the highest opening ever for a Benedict Cumberbatch movie and it was just enough to put Doctor Strange at the bottom of Marvel's top ten list of weekend openers.
Second place went to Trolls, a colorful and oddly inventive movie that won over critics and audiences and banked $45 million. It too has already started cranking its way to profit with an additional $104 million in foreign sales against a $125 million budget, which means Dreamworks is probably already fast tracking what is sure to be a less interesting and probably disappointing series of sequels.
Mel Gibson has been on a ten year directorial hiatus, but a decade after Apocolypto he's back with World War II flick Hacksaw Ridge. It too has critical backing and has been murmured about for awards nominations, but took a distant third place with just $14 million, lower than Apocolypto's $15 million.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
