With Halloween programming now in the rear view, the time has come to look forward to the future. And if you're looking for themed entertainment, Christmas is coming early this year with Universal and Illumination's The Grinch hitting theaters in early November. Early box office tracking has the animated holiday comedy, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, at a solid opening between $50 to $60 million.
October brought along several exciting titles, but are plenty of other releases expected to bring in moviegoers toward the end of the year, including films like The Grinch. The title will follow big competition from the week prior to its release, with Bohemian Rhapsody still making money at the box office. And with The Nutcracker and the Four Realms coming to theaters, there are two big Christmas titles competing for families' attention. Opening on the same day, November 9, The Grinch will go head-to-head with The Girl in the Spider's Web and Overlord. According to Variety, these two titles aren't tracking as highly as the green grump, though, so the family film will likely steal the weekend.
The Girl in the Spider's Web is tracking at $12 to $15 million, following a similar opening to its predecessor The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which opened at $12 million. Spider's Web, however, doesn't have the advantages of David Fincher as director and Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara starring. Horror war film Overlord produced by J.J. Abrams is looking at a similar opening, with tracking settling between $8 to $15 million.
The lovable fuzzy green sourpuss hasn't returned to the big screen since Jim Carrey took on the iconic role in 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The movie is still the second-highest grossing holiday movie of all time, just under Home Alone, and it took home $55 million during its opening weekend. Eighteen years later, the movie is now a holiday classic and fans of the film, along with the 1966 television special, will be excited to see the character back in action.
Universal and Illumination Entertainment have produced a string of successful animated films, including the Despicable Me movies, Sing and The Secret Life of Pets. Universal's Grinch property now has the potential to become a successful animated franchise, if The Grinch does well with family audiences. Should the film does come over a month before Christmas, it could still bring in a big audience before the high competition of other holiday season releases, including Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, along with Once Upon A Deadpool, which is also slated for late December.
The Grinch's early release might come at the perfect time to grow the character's heart three sizes bigger with the love it could receive when it comes out on November 9.
