Your Weekend Box Office Actuals (11.14.16)

	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	Doctor Strange	$42.970 million	$85.058 million	$152.952 million
	Trolls	$34.979 million	$46.581 million	$93.943 million
	Arrival	$24.074 million	$24.074 million	$24.074 million
	Almost Christmas	$15.134 million	$15.134 million	$15.134 million
	Hacksaw Ridge	$10.630 million	$15.190 million	$32.120 million

The box office this weekend was a mix of both the expected and unexpected. Disney and Marvel’s Doctor Strange continued its domination, as expected, and continues to be the franchise’s second-best solo film behind the one that started it all: 2008’s Iron Man. It’s now just over $150 million domestically and has reached that mark faster than any other Marvel film except for Iron Man. It also has the best second weekend hold among the last ten Marvel films after dropping only 49 percent. While the film has received just criticism in its casting and fitting too neatly into the Marvel mold, it’s certified fresh at 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences giving it the slight edge of 91 percent. Clearly, it seems Marvel can do no long-lasting or serious damage to itself (at least not until superheroes have outlasted their welcome in movies at large).

The mystical superhero film is also sitting just under $500 million worldwide (specifically, it’s made $494 million so far), which has helped Disney reach its best ever box office year and it’s very likely Disney might even be able to best Universal’s worldwide box office record that it set last year. Plus, with other films performing surprisingly well right now, like Trolls and Arrival, which I’ll get to in a moment, the box office at large is faring better than it has in weeks and this past weekend wound up faring 56 percent better than the same weekend last year, which is good news in the face of any cynics speaking ill of the future of movies and movie theaters.

Marvel Studios

Now onto the next two films, which fared better than expected and helped continue the box office’s good track record at the moment.

DreamWorks’ latest venture, Trolls, made about $7 million more than was predicted, dropping only 24.8 percent in its second weekend. It’s now just under $100 million domestically and at $223.9 million worldwide after only ten days of release, likely on the way to being one of the most successful animated movies of the year (or at least one of the better ones — after all, Zootopia, Finding Dory, and The Secret Life of Pets are pretty hard to beat with the former two surpassing $1 billion worldwide and the latter coming pretty close). It’s also doing decently with critics and audiences alike — the former has it at 73 percent and the latter has rated it at 76 percent. It seems the colorful voices of both Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick have certainly won people over (or at the very least, there’s not much competition to it for families right now).

Next, my gamble on Arrival vs. Almost Christmas didn’t pay off and given I’ve never seen Denis Villeneuve movie I haven’t liked, I couldn’t be more pleased to be wrong. The sci-fi drama starring Amy Adams, which currently has a 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, made about $8 million more than I predicted and with a budget of $47 million, it’s off to a great start (not to mention the film is also getting awards buzz). It’s also Villeneuve’s best opening for a wide release film, making $4 million more than Prisoners over opening weekend and far more than Sicario once Sicario moved past its limited release.

Universal Pictures

In a little over 2,300 theaters, the most recent holiday movie, Almost Christmas, made just over $15 million in its first weekend. With a budget of $17 million, it’s well on its way to being a profitable hit for Universal, even if it won’t quite make the same numbers that Boo! A Madea Halloween has so far (currently at $70 million domestically). However, where Almost Christmas is going to struggle is getting lost in the shuffle — this weekend alone, four films are opening in over 1,000 theaters and another, the awards-contender Nocturnal Animals, is opening in limited release but is sure to turn some heads. It’s likely that Almost Christmas will drown in the rest of these films, as films like Doctor Strange and Trolls also continue to try hanging on as best they can.

Finally, the Andrew Garfield-led World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge impressively dropped only 29 percent and has now made a little over $32 million domestically. It won’t see itself in the top five again after this reason for the reason I just stated: there are simply too many movies opening this weekend and going forward for a small period film like this to make any real impact. Still, the film has been a quiet hit with critics, even if it doesn’t end up making a huge profit on its $40 million budget once all is said and done. It’s not Spider-Man or The Social Network but following those films, it’s one of Garfield’s best and will certainly be a boon critically to him, especially as he’s shrunk away a bit since being replaced as the web-slinging Spidey.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The rest of the top ten consisted of The Accountant; another newcomer, the thriller Shut In; Boo! A Madea Halloween; Jack Reacher: Never Go Back; and Inferno (still only at an abysmal $31 million domestically). Plus, the major awards contenders that I told you to watch out for, Moonlight and Loving, expanded their theater presence this past weekend and it showed. Moonlight is now in 176 theaters and has made an impressive $4.6 million, while Loving is in 46 theaters and has made $721,033, with both movies only being domestic releases for now. As for this weekend, as I mentioned, several major films are opening, the biggest of which is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the newest film in the Harry Potter universe. It’s opening in over 4,000 theaters and will likely dominate. Other big films include Bleed for This (2,000 theaters) and the teen dramedy The Edge of Seventeen (1,800 theaters), as well as Ang Lee’s newest film, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk which is expanding to over 1,000 theaters. So get ready for a busy movie weekend right before Thanksgiving.

(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor