Weekend Wrap-Up: Thor Rocks On with $57.08 million, but Weekend Box Office still Suffers

November 14, 2017

Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok led the weekend chart and actually beat our prediction by a small degree with $57.08 million. The two new releases, Daddy’s Home 2 and Murder on the Orient Express, also beat expectations. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to help the overall box office, as it fell 16% from last weekend to $151 million over the weekend. This is 4.9% lower than the same weekend last year. 2017 has fallen further behind 2016 at $8.98 billion to $9.46 billion. 2017 is 5.1% or $480 million behind last year’s pace and I’ll be happy if we can cut that deficit in half by the end of the year.

Thor: Ragnarok held on better than expected down 53% to $57.08 million over the weekend for a total of $212.07 million after just two weeks of release. At this pace, the film will have no trouble becoming the sixth film released in 2017 to reach $300 million domestically. Granted, Justice League will be massive and direct competition, but Thor: Ragnarok should still be in wide release when we enter December and semi-wide release by the end of the year.

Daddy’s Home 2 debuted in second place with $29.65 million during its opening weekend. The film cost $70 million to make, which is a lot for a comedy, so it will need reasonable legs and decent international numbers to break even early in its home market run. That said, while its reviews are soft, it earned an A minus from CinemaScore, so audiences clearly like it more than the average critic. This is a good sign going forward.

Meanwhile, Murder on the Orient Express was right behind with $28.68 million. Its reviews have slipped below the overall positive level and it only managed a B from CinemaScore. However, while both of those factors suggest shorter than average legs, its target audience is still adults and not teenagers, so it could hold up better on Thanksgiving weekend. Even if it has weaker than average legs, it only cost $55 million to make, so it would take a complete collapse to fail to match that domestically and its international numbers are even better, so it should have no trouble breaking even early on its home market run. If it becomes a much bigger hit internationally, it could break even before it reaches the home market and that should make the studio very happy.

A Bad Moms Christmas dipped just 32% earning $11.47 million for a two-week total of $39.83 million. At this pace, it will get to $60 million domestically and $100 million worldwide, which is enough to break even early in its home market run.

Jigsaw rounded out the top five with just $3.42 million for a three-week total of $34.36 million. This is the second worst performance in the franchise and will likely end the franchises theatrical run for a long time.

One last note, Lady Bird rose into 10th place $1.20 million, despite playing in just 37 theaters. This isn’t the fewest theaters for a film in the top ten, as both The Descendants (29 theaters) and Milk (36 theaters) are just ahead of it. That said, given this result and its award-worthy reviews, it should have no trouble earning mainstream success. If Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut starts generating a lot of Awards Season buzz, it could remain in theaters until February.

- Weekend Box Office Chart

- Murder on the Orient Express Comparisons
- Daddy’s Home 2 Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Justice League, Thor: Ragnarok, Murder on the Orient Express, Jigsaw, A Bad Moms Christmas, Daddy’s Home 2, Lady Bird, Saw, Greta Gerwig