The knives came out at the weekend box office, but Rian Johnson’s murder mystery Knives Out wasn’t enough to chip away at the financial dominance of Frozen II. The Disney animated sequel packed even more audiences into theaters over the Thanksgiving break, venturing “Into the Unknown” and proving there was a healthy appetite for the further adventures of Anna, Elsa and Olaf.
Even if it was a debut weekend, the $85 million posted by Frozen II would be a complete and dominant win. Considering the fact that it is the second weekend for the animated hit, and it instantly pushed the film’s cume box office near $300 million, Disney has to be thrilled that they greenlit the sequel to Frozen and explored more story with these beloved characters.
The sequel also posted an impressive 35% drop. That’s an incredible hold for a movie, even over a holiday weekend. Great numbers overall for Frozen II. Speaking of numbers, here is the full box office chart, courtesy of The-Numbers.com:
Rian Johnson shifted away from Star Wars and got back to the types of movies he loves telling – genre tweaks of appreciated storytelling modes – and audiences responded in kind to his Knives Out. The star power of his cast no doubt helped. Led by Daniel Craig playing a bizarre detective, the whodunit surrounded the one-time 007 with co-stars such as Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Ana de Armas, Don Johnson and Christopher Plummer.
Outside of the newcomers, the weekend box office was focused on Oscar hopefuls. James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari continued to pack theaters. After three weeks, the racing drama has inched closer to a $100 million gross. Tom Hanks’ Fred Rogers movie held on for a third place spot. And the new movie Queen and Slim had a fairly strong showing in its debut week, earning $11.6 million in only 1,690 theaters. That’s a spectacular number for a new movie looking for buzz as we head into Oscar season.
Outside of the newcomers, we’re impressed to see Joker holding on to a Top 10 slot, pushing its overall earnings to $330 million. And though the reviews have been largely terrible, the rom-com Last Christmas continues to do well, and could even see an uptik as we get closer to the Christmas season, because there aren’t a lot of seasonal movies coming to theaters in the next few weeks (outside of the Hallmark Channel) so anyone seeing a Christmas fix might grab tickets and enjoy a holiday blast.
