Weekend Box Office: Wicked slays; Running Man plunges 65%

The weekend box office results are in, and just as we predicted, Wicked: For Good easily beat the first film’s $112 million opening with a strong—but not record-breaking—$150 million. That’s the year’s second-best opening, behind A Minecraft Movie, and just ahead of Lilo & Stitch. The movie is poised to play exceptionally well over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and when all is said and done, it has a real shot at coming in as the year’s highest-grossing film in North America—unless Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash take away the crown (or rather, the ruby red slippers).

While critical response has been cool compared to the first film, audiences love Wicked: For Good, with it landing a much-desired A CinemaScore rating—proving repeat business on this one will likely be strong, and it should continue to rack up huge grosses throughout the Christmas season. In fact, last year when the first one hit VOD on New Year’s Day, Wicked was still in the top five at the box office, where it stuck around for many weeks after.

While that’s no doubt good news for exhibitors, it can’t be denied that October and early November have been disastrous. Last year’s surprise sleeper, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, fell off a steep 57% to $9.12 million although, like the other films in the series, it’s proven to be a juggernaut overseas, making another $32.6 million this weekend, even opening ahead of Wicked: For Good in some markets. It’s made $146.2 million overseas, with a final tally in the $300 million range possible. Disney’s Predator: Badlands, which has had a decent—if unspectacular—run, pulled ahead of the disastrous Running Man remake to take third place with $6.25 million for a $76.28 million domestic total. It will end its run somewhere around the $90 million mark—which will make it the highest-grossing Predator movie (although, adjusted for inflation, the original and even Alien vs. Predator kill it).

Meanwhile, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man is proving to be one of the year’s biggest box office disasters, falling an abysmal 65% in week two to $5.8 million and a horrific $27 million domestic total. This one is clearly not striking a chord with audiences (was it the ending?), leaving us to wonder—are some movies too iconic to remake? Brendan Fraser’s indie Rental Family did modest business in fifth place with $3.3 million, the latest adult-skewed awards contender to open soft. Sisu: Road to Revenge wasn’t far behind with $2.6 million, which isn’t too far off from the $3.2 million the original made. Perhaps its target male audience will check it out this Thanksgiving while their wives, girlfriends, and daughters are seeing Wicked: For Good for the second time.

The Colleen Hoover adaptation Regretting You started to wrap up its run with $1.52 million and a solid $47 million domestic total. Nuremberg, whose $1.234 million weekend and $11 million domestic haul are nothing to brag about, is actually performing a lot better than most adult-skewed awards contenders. The Black Phone 2 wrapped up its run with a $1 million weekend and a $76 million total, making it Blumhouse’s biggest success in a long time. Finally, Sarah’s Oil made $771K, pushing its total over $1 million.

Next weekend is Thanksgiving, so it should be a good one for exhibitors, with Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 both primed to do big business. What will you be checking out? Let us know in the comments.

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