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- Box Office
World Box Office, November 21-27
This weekend, Disney Animation’s Moana grabbed the biggest plate of turkey and also took home most of the leftovers. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson voices the Polynesian demigod Maui, who aides Moana, a teenage princess voiced by 16 year old Auli’I Cravalho, in this open water adventure to save her island from the vengeful lava spirit Te Ka. It earned $81.1 million and notched the second best Thanksgiving release in history after fellow Disney feature Frozen (which went on to earn $1.27 billion and is the ninth highest grossing film of all time.) Moana features music by Broadway darling Lin Manuel Miranda, and is directed by veterans John Musker and Ron Clements, the pair responsible for The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules. Unlike its title character, the film had some trouble reaching the far off shores on the other side of the Pacific. It finished second in China behind Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them with $12.3 million, a figure that still earned it the second biggest three-day animated release of all time for Disney in the Middle Kingdom. Eleven other foreign territories netted an extra $4 million, to bring its global debut to $97.5 million. It is covering 23% of its planned international territories so far, and will move into France, Spain, the UK and Mexico next week.
Also debuting at home was Paramount and GK Films’ Allied, which opened to $13 million. This tense love story takes place between Casablanca and London at the height of World War II and stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Allied earned $9.4 million from 23 overseas territories including majors France and England, where it made just $2.8 million and $1.6 million. Its combined global cumulative so far is $27.4 million, whereas the film’s reported production budget is $85 million.
The only other new release to crack the top ten was Miramax’s Bad Santa 2, which racked up $6.1 million in its home market launch. Mean Girls director Mark Walters is at the helm, with Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox returning as their classic alcoholic Santa Claus and kleptomaniacal Elf duo to pull off another heist. This time the pair find themselves trying to clean out a children’s charity run by a deceptively innocent Christina Hendricks. Joining them on the caper is Thornton’s mother, an equally violent and dysfunctional petty thief played by Cathy Bates. The charitiy’s director does most of her Christmas fundraising through men in Santa Claus costumes, giving the crew a perfect way in. Bad Santa 2 moved into 8 international markets and earned $1.45 million, taking the debut weekend cume to $9 million against a budget of $26 million.
In holdover news Dr. Strange moved well past the $600 million mark, finishing its fourth frame on $616 million after adding $9.8 million overseas and $13.6 million at home. It is now the biggest Marvel film that introduces a single new hero. Stephen Strange’s eastern magic and Kung Fu skills found a welcome audience in Asia where the film’s two biggest overseas markets, China and South Korea, have reached $109.6 and $40.9 million.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them offered no surprises as it held on to first place on the combined chart with $45 million at home and $132 million abroad. Its global cume has now reached $475 million and is a sign of big things to come for Warner Bros.’ newest mega-franchise.
We’re unlikely to see much of a shake up in the current box office ranking over the next frame. The biggest new entry is Pablo Larrain’s Jackie, which see’s Natalia Portman play Jacqueline Kennedy in the days following her husband’s assassination. Also opening are thrillers Incarnate and The Eyes of My Mother.