It may not have been the type of box office weekend any of the studios will be bragging about for years to come, but sometimes a nice solid performance is exactly what's needed. Each of the holdovers in the top five this week got exactly that too, with Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, Bumblebee, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and The Mule all holding a significant percentage of their prior weekend traffic and/ or growing as families flock to the theaters during the holiday season.
You can check out the full chart below...
If you want to know how well Aquaman has performed in just two weeks, a little context is needed. We're all used to these absolutely outlandish openings for movies like Avengers: Infinity War, but that was essentially the culmination of success building on success building on success. Aquaman doesn't have that luxury. In fact, Justice League, which featured all of DC's major heroes including Aquaman, ended is entire domestic run at $229,000,000 and change. Aquaman is already up to $188,000,000 and change, per Box Office Mojo. That's a great performance, and once you factor in the almost $600,000,000 it has made in international grosses, it has already topped Justice League. So, well played, James Wan.
Exactly what Disney's expectation for Mary Poppins Returns may have been is unclear, but with the film about to cross $100,000,000 in domestic grosses and $175,000,000 in total grosses, plus absolutely rave reviews for Emily Blunt's turn as the title character, it all feels like a win, especially for a high risk project like this one. It all could have gone so much worse, but instead, now many are left wondering whether it will be the start of a possible franchise.
The results weren't quite as positive for newcomers Vice and Holmes And Watson, though a little context is needed there too. Vice has gotten pretty decent reviews, though almost universal praise for its performances. It will likely net at least an Oscar nomination, and it is already the highest grossing domestic release in the history of Annapurna. So, performance here should probably be interpreted as a bit more of a mixed bag. For Holmes And Watson, however, the picture is a little more bleak. Fans gave the film a horrendous D+ CinemaScore, and many flocked to Twitter to admit they walked out before it was even over. My parents must not have read that article because they called me yesterday to say they tried to see Vice but when the showtimes didn't work out, they pivoted to Holmes And Watson and made it about 35 minutes before bailing.
I'd also like to extended a quick shoutout to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and The Mule, both of which just kept cooking in their third weekends, as well as Ralph Breaks The Internet and The Grinch, which are in their sixth and eighth weekends in the Top 10. Well played.
