Wakanda still reigns on weak Thanksgiving weekend in North America

BLACK Panther: Wakanda Forever again ruled the North American box office this weekend, while two new high-budget releases had “weak” openings, analysts said.

Disney and Marvel’s Wakanda took in an estimated US$45.9 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period (Nov 25-27), or US$64 million for the full Thanksgiving weekend starting Wednesday, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported on Sunday.

But the drop-off was sharp after that popular superhero tale, despite the holiday weekend.

Overall, the weekend’s top dozen films had 12 per cent less in ticket sales than the top 12 of a year earlier.

In second place was Disney’s computer-animated sci-fi movie Strange World, at US$11.9 million for three days and US$18.6 million for five days.

Variety.com called that a “catastrophic” result for a film with a US$180 million budget.

And in third was another new release, Sony’s Devotion, which took in US$6 million for three days (US$9 million for five).

David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research called that “a weak opening for a war action movie”.

The story about the friendship of two US fighter pilots during the Korean War had a US$90 million budget.

SEE ALSO

‘Wakanda’ extends its box-office reign in North American theatres

Fourth place went to Searchlight’s horror-comedy The Menu, at US$5.2 million (US$7.3 million). Ralph Fiennes plays a celebrity chef with some dark surprises on the menu.

And in fifth was Black Adam from Warner Bros, which took in US$3.4 million (US$4.7 million). Dwayne Johnson stars as the titular superhero.

Netflix has not released numbers for another much-anticipated film, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, but Gross said the sequel to 2019‘s Knives Out took in an estimated US$9 million in limited release over just three days – “a terrific result”.

Rounding out the top 10 were: The Fabelmans (US$2.22 million for three days; US$3 million for five), Bones and All (US$2.20 million; US$3.6 million), Ticket to Paradise (US$1.9 million; US$2.6 million), The Chosen Season 3: Episodes 1&2 (US$1.5 million; US$2.1 million), She Said (US$1.1 million; US$1.5 million). AFP