Wednesday Box Office: Rogue Wins with $14.97 million, but Sing Hits the High Note with $11.01 million
December 22, 2016
As expected, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story led the way on Wednesday. It fell 15% to $14.97 million on Wednesday for a 6-day total of $204.23 million. By comparison, The Force Awakens rose 2% to $38.02 million on Wednesday for a six-day total of $363.46 million; however, it didn’t have to deal with three wide releases. In fact, it’s only “new” competition was the semi-wide expansion of The Big Short. Comparing the two movies’ daily numbers will get less illuminating until we get past Boxing Day, because the misalignment in the holidays will be playing a major role in the day-to-day changes.
Sing was in second place with $11.01 million, which is more than predicted. It’s reviews have also crept up a little bit and are now at 69% positive. Its CinemaScore is even better at a solid A and this should help it going forward. Best case scenario has it earning just over $60 million during its five-day opening weekend, but anything above $56 million will be worth celebrating.
Assassin’s Creed is beating expectations a little bit with $4.62 million on Wednesday. Its reviews are terrible, but its CinemaScore is a B+, which is right on the edge of hurting or helping. It could still slip into fourth place over the weekend, if its Fanboy Effect hurts its legs. Even if it doesn’t, earning just over $20 million over five days it not a good opening for a film that cost $125 million to make, even when you take into account the long legs most Christmas releases have.
On the other hand, Passengers missed expectations with $4.11 million on Wednesday. There’s not a lot of good news to talk about here. It is aimed at a more mature audience than Assassin’s Creed is, so it could have better legs as a result. However, this more mature target audience is more likely to read reviews and that’s really bad news for the movie. Furthermore, its CinemaScore is just a B. That’s not a bad grade to get on a book report, but it means the word-of-mouth will be soft here.
Moana added $2.13 million on Wednesday to its running tally, which now sits at $170.46 million. This is a little better than expected and if it bounces back tomorrow, it could have a really good holiday run. This is even more impressive when you consider its direct competition is also doing better than expected.
One last note, Patriots Day opened with $65,000 in just seven theaters. I’ve heard very mixed reports about this movie. The overall reviews are 80% positive. However, I’ve also heard that the way it uses the real life tragedy is offensively ham-fisted. It will be interesting to see which direction audiences go.
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Tracking
- Sing Comparisons
- December Preview
- Theater Count
- Weekend Predictions
- Thursday Night Previews
- Friday Estimates
- Weekend Estimates
- Weekend Wrap-Up
- Theater Average Chart
- International Top Five
- Monday Box Office Chart
- Tuesday Box Office Chart
- Passengers Comparisons
- Assassin’s Creed Comparisons
- Why Him? Comparisons
- Fences Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Passengers, Assassin’s Creed, Moana, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Sing, Patriots Day