It’s strange to call a $96 million opening weekend a disappointment but when you’re getting your biggest superhero names together in one film and it carries a reported $300 million budget, disappointment is the only way to describe it.
Justice League finished atop the weekend box office as expected but it came in well below the $110-120 million it was tracking at before heading into the weekend. Things started off ok with $13 million in Thursday night previews (about $2 million more than Wonder Woman which went on to open to $103.2 million) but it never quite recovered the rest of the weekend and the result is the lowest opening for the DCEU thus far.
Where it goes from here will be interesting to see. It did receive a “B+” CinemaScore (higher than the “B” for Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad) but below some of the more popular Marvel titles which tend to see great legs at the box office. Weekend 2 should be cushioned a bit by Thanksgiving Day weekend being decent to most films due to many people being off work and school but the drop should still be substantial. The fact of the matter is this film will not match its budget domestically and will need a lot of help from overseas box office to pull out a profit.
The film got started with $185.5 million from its overseas opening which results in a $281.5 million worldwide opening. This film was tracking for a $325 million worldwide opening so it fell short on that end too. The film won’t end up being a total financial failure in the end but Warner Bros. may strongly consider making some creative changes behind the scenes because critics still weren’t impressed (39% on Rotten Tomatoes) and the casual moviegoer, judging from the lower opening, wasn’t enticed either. To be fair, reactions on Twitter from fans of the franchise seems way more positive when compared to Batman v. Superman or Suicide Squad but a franchise like this needs to please the masses (much like Wonder Woman did) and it doesn’t appear to be the case here.
Speaking of a wonder, we have a surprising second-place showing from Wonder and it’s a fine example of counter-programming working at its finest. The film opened to a robust $27 million and that’s well ahead of the $9 million it was tracking at before going into the weekend. Strong reviews and moviegoers seeking something inspirational at the box office pushed sales here and this is a film that will play strongly well into the holiday. Suddenly we potentially have a $100 million dollar finisher here when it’s all said and done and that’s all on a scant $20 million budget.
Holdovers fill in the next 3 spots with Thor: Ragnarok getting kneecapped by Justice League a bit but it was by no means a bloodbath. It dropped 60% to $21.7 million and now has a running total just shy o $250 million. Last week it became the highest grossing Thor film of the franchise and a $300 million finish is still in the cards for the $180 million film. Worldwide the film has grossed $738.1 million and looks even more bright in the wake of the underperformance of Justice League.
Fourth and Fifth have last week’s openers pretty much running in line with each other. Daddy’s Home 2 is up first with $14.8 million which represents a 50% drop. It’s a little steeper than expected but it should rebound some over the holiday to get back on track a bit. The film’s total is over $50 million and while that’s short of the $150 million finish of the first film, I think it should still finish in the $90-100 million range which is solid for a sequel with such dismal reviews.
Fifth belongs to Murder on the Orient Express which also drops about 52% to $13.8 million. The $55 million film is also at the $50 million mark and it should also continue to play well to finish in the same range as Daddy’s Home 2. Working in its favor is that it seems to be the top film for older audiences, especially during the week as its midweek grosses were quite impressive and had it coming out well ahead of Daddy’s Home 2.
Check out the full top ten results below:
- Justice League – $96 million (NEW)
- Wonder – $27 million (NEW)
- Thor: Ragnarok – $21.7 million (-61.8%, $247.8 million)
- Daddy’s Home 2 – $14.8 million (-50.1%, $50.5 million)
- Murder on the Orient Express – $13.8 million (-51.9%, $51.7 million)
- The Star – $10 million (NEW)
- A Bad Moms Christmas – $6.8 million (-39.9%, $50.9 million)
- Lady Bird – $2.5 million (+110.9%, $4.7 million)
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – $1.1 milion (+246.1%, $1.5 million)
- Jigsaw – $1 million (-68.8%, $36.4 million)
