'Ralph' Breaking $25M+ 2nd Weekend; 'Grinch' Steals $203M+; 'Hannah Grace' $6M+ In Slow Post Thanksgiving Period
For the third year in a row, Disney owned the slow post-Thanksgiving period with Ralph Breaks the Internet which according to studio figures drew $25.8M at 4,017 theaters, -54%. Gross-wise, Ralph 2's second weekend is slightly behind that of Disney's previous Thanksgiving second weekend holdovers Moana ($28.2M, -50%) and Coco ($27.5M, -46%). Total by EOD for Ralph 2 through 12 days would be $119.2M. Non-family audiences are showing up big at 44% followed by 38% kids and 18% parents in weekend 2 per PostTrak.
And if you though this weekend was slow, just wait for next: There aren't any major studio wide releases. In the post Golden Globes nominations period, it's the indies who'll look to make a mark: Focus Features' has the limited release of Mary Queen of Scots, Neon has Vox Lux, Roadside Attractions' has Peter Hedges' Ben Is Back starring Julia Roberts, and Universal has the 25th anniversary re-release of Oscar winner Schindler's List.
Universal/Illumination's The Grinch rebounded and stole second place away from MGM/New Line's Creed II, $17.7M to $16.8M. The Dr. Seuss movie flew past the two-century mark with a running total of $203.5M and joined other $200M+ domestic Seuss grossing films as the first 2000 Grinch ($260M), Illumination's The Lorax ($214M). Second weekend exits for Creed II remained high with four-and-half stars and a diverse pull of 39% Caucasians, 35% African Americans and 18% Hispanic.
Dropping hard at-62% is Warner Bros.' Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald with $11.2M in weekend 3. The sequel is clearly not up to snuff of its first movie in regards to audience response (B+ to A), and critical response (40% Rotten to 74% Certified Fresh). Creed II's second weekend is ahead of its 2015 predecessor ($14.9M) and its running total by Sunday of $80.7M is also raging ahead through 12 days by 25%.
Screen Gems' R-rated horror film, The Possession of Hannah Grace, with $6.5M over three-days, may not look so dazzling, but this $6M budgeted title with a $12M P&A spend is good enough for Sony. The movie was a low-budget cash grab in the current slow marketplace and we've heard from finance sources that anything over $5.5M was considered to be a win for Sony internally. That said, don't expect the movie to leg out that much. Critics weren't kind with a 27% Rotten Tomatoes score and audiences weren't over the moon with a C- CinemaScore and a (gulp) star and a half on PostTrak and a 37% definite recommend. In regards to Hannah Grace's CinemaScore, it's down from Screen Gems' late August 2016 hit Don't Breathe (B+) but above this summer's Slender Man which did a D-, and opened to $11.3M and finaled at $30.5M. Demos were 50/50 male-female with nearly even quads all around, but with females under 25 leading: M25- (25%), M25+ (25%), F25- (29%), F25+ (21%). A mostly diverse draw in 43% Caucasians, 27% Hispanics, and 19% African Americans.
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