Beyoncé and ‘Renaissance’ save the weekend
The concert film scored the No. 1 spot while ‘Wish,’ ‘Napoleon’ and ‘The Marvels’ continued the free fall of tentpole films.
Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of Dec. 1-3, 2023.
1. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé
Weekend gross: $21M
Total domestic gross: $21M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
It was a rough weekend at the box office. Disney’s two tentpole films, Wish and The Marvels, continued their free falls, guaranteeing that the studio will finish the year without any of its films crossing the $1 billion mark. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon suffered a 65 percent drop its second weekend.
But at least there was Beyoncé.
Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, the singer/songwriter/entertainer’s concert film, debuted at No. 1, continuing the recent success of the genre. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour opened with $92.8 million in October, going on to gross $178.8 million at the domestic box office. (Renaissance opened on 2,539 theaters compared to the 3,855 theaters that The Eras Tour opened on.)
In a normal winter movie season, dropping Renaissance this weekend could’ve been a disaster. The mix of The Marvels, Wish, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Trolls Band Together and Napoleon should have made it impossible for any other film to open at No. 1 the first weekend of December.
2. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Weekend gross: $14.5M
Total domestic gross: $121.2M
Last weekend: 1st
Percent drop: 50
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is actually a box office bright spot. Despite not living up to the loftier standards of the Hunger Games franchise (the original Hunger Games grossed $33.1 million its third weekend), The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has managed to stick around in the top five unlike several of its major competitors.
3. Godzilla Minus One
Weekend gross: $11M
Total domestic gross: $11M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
While the hype machine is gearing up for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, a different Godzilla movie hit American theaters this weekend. Godzilla Minus One, the latest installment in the Toho Studios franchise, debuted at No. 3, fueled by great word of mouth and stellar reviews. I’m hoping to get to a theater to see this one next weekend.
4. Trolls Band Together
Weekend gross: $7.6M
Total domestic gross: $74.8M
Last weekend: 4th
Percent drop: 57
The first Trolls movie grossed $153.7 million over its domestic run. Trolls Band Together currently sits at less than half that total.
5. Wish
Weekend gross: $7.4M
Total domestic gross: $42M
Last weekend: 3rd
Percent drop: 62
There’s been a lot of talk over the past weeks about what’s gone wrong when it comes to Disney’s major theatrical releases. Wish falling 62 percent to land at No. 5 its second weekend (after opening in third place) isn’t great. At all. A lot of fingers have pointed at Disney’s strategy when it comes to Disney+.
Consumers not only expect but understand that it’s now a short wait from when a film opens in theaters to when it’s available on Disney+. Why pay to bring your family to a movie theater when you’ll be able to watch a movie like Wish at home just a few weeks later? (Even weirder is the studio stepping on paid home releases. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, for example, is already on Disney+ while its Blu-ray release doesn’t happen until this Tuesday.)
Also notable this week: Napoleon fell from No. 2 to No. 6 with $7.1 million for a $45.7 million domestic gross. The Marvels fell from No. 6 to No. 11 with just $2.5 million for a domestic haul of $80.7 million.
Box office numbers via The Numbers based on Sunday estimates.
