Miyazaki makes moolah, Poor Things is anything but, Waitress provides plenty to sing about, and Other Box Office News.
For the first time in over a year, every film in the Top 10 of the weekend’s US Box Office results comes from a different distributor – at least according to Bruce Nash of The Numbers and he’s way more knowledgeable about stuff like that than I am, so I’ll take his word. That’s the kind of statistic which, to a degree, gives me a smidge of hope about the desire of audiences to still go see movies, and a wide variety of movies at that, in the cinema.
It’s the little things you have to cling onto whilst the wider industry, and life in general, is on fire. Little things like, for the first time ever, a Hayao Miyazaki joint being the #1 film in America. The animation legend’s third (and seemingly not-final) attempt at a retirement film, The Boy and the Heron, has become the first Japanese anime not based on an existing IP to top the weekend charts, scoring a strong $12.9 million Wide Release opening. And it’s not the only Japanese release to be racking up the receipts as Godzilla Minus One, fresh off getting an additional week added to its theatrical run following last week’s excellent opening, posted the second-best week-to-week hold of any film in the Top 10, dipping just 26.9% to keep hold of third place with $8.3 million.
READ MORE: British Transport Films Volume 15: Life on the Line – DVD Review
Meanwhile, 2023 has evidently proven that audiences cannot get enough of filmed concerts. Joining Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and the Stop Making Sense re-release in the category of “recorded versions of hot-ticket shows the vast majority of people couldn’t get to for one reason or another” is Waitress: The Musical, a recording of the Sara Bareilles/Jessie Nelson Broadway hit which became one of the first to re-open after COVID. And if there is one thing you can count on in this world, it’s musical theatre nerds showing out to support one of their own – except when it comes to Theater Camp, anyway, grumblegrumbleNowOnDisney+ – especially when it pulls the Hamilton recording gambit of getting all the original run cast back. $3.2 million from 1,214 screens for eighth place.
Lastly for the preamble, we’re chambering up the final big Limited Releases of the year and the first shot goes to Yorgos Lanthimos’ mega-acclaimed Poor Things, a film nearly everybody besides me has seen NOT THAT I’M BITTER OR ANYTHING. There doesn’t appear to be a fixed date for Wide expansion just yet, but Searchlight Pictures are probably gonna want to lock that in posthaste cos tickets are flying out the door for this movie. In nine theatres, Lanthimos has been lavished with libations to the tune of $644,000; a PTA of $71,555.
I don’t have a funny/tortured Full List transition pun this week.
US Box Office Results: Friday 8th December 2023 – Sunday 10th December 2023
1] The Boy and the Heron
$12,972,683 / NEW
We actually have a review of this by moi going live next week to coincide with the UK release on Boxing Day! So, I shall refrain from divulging my thoughts until the time is right to appropriately build up the suspense! …assuming you haven’t been following my Twitter or Letterboxd, anyway, where I’ve already spoiled them a few times in the last two months. Oops.
2] The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
$9,400,000 / $135,655,926
Guessing that Lionsgate will have been pushing the decent-but-unspectacular Olivia Rodrigo credits number in this category, hence the outcome, but really not a single nomination for Lucy Gray’s bangers in the Best Original Song fight, Golden Globes?! Not even for “The Old Therebefore/Singing at Snakes,” guys?! Yeah, I’m a mark for the original songs in Barbie too – and only the ones in Barbie, most of the album cuts stink – but three nominations is taking the piss.
3] Godzilla Minus One
$8,342,710 / $25,344,044
Out this weekend. Very excited.
4] Trolls Band Together
$6,200,000 / $83,081,775
Despite promising, I still did not get around to watching Trolls World Tour last week. I’m sorry, it’s not a good time right now, hence a BOR with less effort put into the jokes than usual and yes that is possible don’t think I can’t hear the heckles from the back row!
5] Wish
$5,300,000 / $49,412,846
You can say a lot about, and read a lot into, those DealBook Summit comments made by Disney CEO Bob Iger. You know, the ones where he says that “creators lost sight of what their No. 1 objective needed to be… We have to entertain first. It’s not about messages”. For my part, I just can’t help thinking of how demoralised and attacked those creatives on the recent Disney releases must feel. Hearing your Boss’ Boss claim, publicly, that you didn’t even try to make a good entertaining movie and were merely trying to push an agenda must be brutally insulting for any creative at any level of production; having invested so much time and effort into your art only to be crapped on by a suit who had little-to-no input in the trenches and has never made anything artistic in his life. No fucking wonder Wish is a thinly-veiled diss track against Iger, I’d be furious too in their shoes.
6] RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCÉ
$5,000,000 / $28,051,164
That Angelica Jade Bastién review of RENAISSANCE is excellent, fuck the haters. People, and especially fans, really need to re-learn how to take valid criticism of their faves, I swear to God. It’s not only a vital part of having a healthy relationship with art, but it also leads to vastly more interesting cultural conversations and, crucially, doesn’t affect you personally in the slightest. Trust me, I’m a The 1975 fan; I don’t get a moment’s peace when it comes to valid criticism.
7] Napoleon
$4,200,000 / $53,094,572
You know that it’s December when Podmas season kicks into gear! This year’s batch started with Dave Bond heading Football Cliches into the back-of-the-net.
8] Waitress: The Musical
$3,237,875 / $3,909,980
Speaking of musicals, how about that last Doctor Who special, eh? If there’s a bigger “DADDY’S HOME” statement of intent than that needle-drop, then I can’t even imagine it. And said scene is just one small aspect of the many things Lee Thacker had to touch on in his ecstatic review.
9] Animal
$2,483,326 / $11,760,703
There are, err, animals a-plenty on the front-cover of Eamon the Destroyer’s new album, We’ll Be Piranhas, and yes that is the link I’m going with. Longtime fan Shaun Rockwood put it under the aural microscope.
10] The Shift
$2,120,961 / $8,463,761
Wanting some seasonally-appropriate entertainment that’s much less saccharine and much more sac-s-of-blood-rin-sing-the-snow? Chris Haigh recommends Titan Books’ latest compendium, Christmas and Other Horrors.
Dropped out: Silent Night, Thanksgiving