Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker concluded the 12 Days of Box Office as the number one film choice on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Now that the box office surge is over, expect a major downswing in terms of grosses as the remake of The Grudge enters the marketplace this weekend.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker grossed $13.1 million on New Year’s Eve and $17.2 million on New Year’s Day, allowing the film to cross the $400 million mark with a domestic take of $407.8 million to date. The good news is that the New Year’s Day gross beats the January 1 take of The Last Jedi ($14.2 million) and isn’t far from Rogue One ($16.75 million). Skywalker ranks fourth among the highest-grossing New Years Days behind The Force Awakens ($34.3 million, 2016), Avatar ($25.2 million, 2010), and Meet the Fockers ($18.2 million, 2005).
The not so good news, and this is all relative since the film is still making big bucks, is that the film went from being 2% behind Last Jedi on Sunday to being 8% behind in its first 13 days through Wednesday. Part of that stems from big box office days like Christmas and New Year’s falling later in Last Jedi‘s run. By its 16th day of release, on December 30, Last Jedi flew past the half-billion mark at the domestic box office. I was expecting the film to overtake the gap but now that the box office boost of the holiday season is over, The Rise of Skywalker is going to take a big hit this weekend since everyone is back to their routine of work and school. The Last Jedi ended its run with a domestic take of $620.1 million and The Rise of Skywalker simply doesn’t have enough gas in the tank to make it to that amount. A gross of over $500 million domestic is likely, still a hefty sum for any film of a franchise. As for this weekend, I think The Rise of Skywalker still finishes at number one with a take of $25-30 million.
Jumanji: The Next Level maintained its status of being the second choice for families with a gross of $8.2 million on New Year’s Eve & $10.9 million on New Year’s Day. The Next Level doesn’t have the same legs as Welcome to the Jungle since it’s currently running 18% behind that film at the same point in 2017 but it’s still a successful run and I’m pretty sure a third film will likely be around the corner to entertain us during the month of December in the future. Jumanji: The Next Level has a domestic tally of $203 million after 20 days of release.
Little Women is still bringing in the female demographic with a gross of $4.1 million on New Year’s Eve and $5.25 million on New Year’s Day. The film has a domestic take of $42.8 million after eight days of release and it could very well have some of the best legs of the holiday release moving forward, especially if it can snag some significant Oscar nominations.
There is a new release headed our way this weekend as the remake of The Grudge looks to haunt the first weekend of January. Here’s the deal, the film is kind of being dumped during this weekend in January with what seems like a muted marketing push but a lot of its groundswell is being made up online. Reportedly the film has made gains among younger females, followed by younger males in the days leading up to its release and that’s pretty encouraging for Sony Screen Gems. The film is R-rated, which could mute some of its reach with the demo but horror has been very successful at playing to New Year’s audiences, and last year Sony found an adequate hit in the PG-13 Escape Room, which opened to $18.2 million stateside off a $9 million production cost. The film ended its run at $57 million domestic & $155.7 million globally. The Grudge cost $10 million to make so the bar for success is low and it’s definitely possible the film turns into a minor hit. The film hasn’t screened for press yet (that happens later tonight) so there is no Rotten Tomatoes score yet but I don’t expect the film to receive glowing reviews. The Grudge should see about $10-12 million for the weekend.
