After some dismal weeks at the box office for the month of November, we finally have a winner with the impressive debut of Ford v Ferrari but November still claimed a box office victim with the failure of Charlie’s Angels.
Ford v Ferrari grossed $31.4 million and claims the top spot in the process. The debut hits the high end of the film’s box office tracking which saw an opening weekend of $25-30 million+. The film was bolstered by good reviews (92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), the appeal of its two leads (Matt Damon & Christian Bale) and its potential as an awards contender. The opening weekend almost ensures that the $100 million film will be a part of the Oscar conversation (just how these things work). Ford v Ferrari also shows that older audiences will see a film at the theater if the product is worth it and subject matter proved to be worth it for the crowd of mostly men who made up 62% of the audience with 79% of the overall crowd coming in aged 25 or older. With an impressive “A+” CinemaScore, I think the film will definitely see some legs that could possibly carry the film through the end of the year. Internationally, Ford v Ferrari brought in $21.4 million from 41 markets for a $52 million global debut, enjoying #1 openings in several including Russia, which serves as the film’s top international market with a $3.2 million debut.
Midway falls to second this weekend after scoring a surprise number one finish with $8.5 million. That’s a drop of 52.5% which drives home the fact that this film was a bit of a weekend wonder due to the Veteran’s Day holiday. The film cost a reported $100 million to make and it’s definitely not making that stateside with a running total of $34.8 million so far. The film is doing modest numbers internationally so that will help some of the bleeding but Lionsgate isn’t really getting a winner here, despite the surprise debut during its opening weekend.
Debuting in third if the new iteration of Charlie’s Angels which has its wings clipped with a dismal $8.3 million opening. Yet again we have another weekend at the box office where everyone is pointing the finger when it comes down to what went wrong here. Writer and director Elizabeth Banks made headlines yesterday saying that if the film didn’t make money it shows that men don’t want to see female-led action films. Followers on Twitter immediately pointed to Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel but Banks doubled down on her comments and said those films were a part of male-dominated sub-genre and used to essentially prop up future installments that aren’t driven by the female leads. I’m not saying she’s totally wrong because a studio exec will look at this opening weekend and maybe think twice about going all-in on a female-led action film. I’d suspect the bigger culprit, and this is coming from someone who saw the film and thought it was better than expected, no one really asked for another Charlie’s Angels. The first two films were successful to varying degrees, not so much because the brand begged to be made into a movie but because of the star power of its three leads (Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz & Lucy Liu). Kristen Stewart, also quite good in this and a lot of indie movies recently you’ve never seen, hasn’t really been in a mainstream hit since 2012’s Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 while Naomi Scott scored a hit with the live-action Aladdin this year but her Jasmine turn isn’t what sold tickets. Lastly, there is British actress Ella Balinska who I’m going to assume the target audience has never heard of. The film needed more star power to make this a must-see and it just didn’t have that. The lack of star power did keep the budget low (reportedly about $48-50 million) but even the cheaper approach won’t work in its favor because the debut was so low. Reviews weren’t exactly horrible (58% rotten after debuting fresh for a few days in the 65% range) and those who saw it thought it was decent (“B” CinemaScore) but it just didn’t have the reach to attract its target audience. Speaking of that audience, it was 61% female with 55% of the overall audience coming in aged 25 or older, which means it definitely didn’t engage the younger female audience as intended.
Holding pretty well in fourth is John Cena’s Playing With Fire which grossed $8.3 million. The film dropped about 34.5% and has the best hold of the openers from last weekend. The film is connecting with family audiences but I think Cena is bigger pull here than some box office experts are giving him credit for. The film has a running total of $25.2 million to date and it’s about to become a modest family hit for Paramount Pictures.
Rounding out the top five is Last Christmas which grossed $6.4 million. That’s a drop of 43.2% which isn’t horrible considering it could rebound in the coming weeks due the holiday season. I’m sure Universal Pictures was expecting a bigger return by now but it should see some modest results by the end of its run. Last Christmas has grossed $22.3 million to date.
Check out the full top ten results below:
| Film | Total | % Change | Gross to Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onward | $10,601,952 | -72.9% | $60.3 |
| Bloodshot | $9,176,695 | NEW | $9.17 |
| I Still Believe | $9,103,614 | NEW | $9.10 |
| The Invisible Man | $5,890,805 | -61.1% | $64.3 |
| The Hunt | $5,304,455 | NEW | $5.3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | $2,522,584 | -67.3% | $145.7 |
| The Way Back | $2,356,115 | -71.2% | $13.3 |
| The Call of the Wild | $2,226,720 | -67.1% | $62 |
| Emma. | $1,295,215 | -73% | $9.9 |
| Bad Boys for Life | $1,102,208 | -63.5% | $204.2 |
