Look, if you're here reading this, what you really want is the in-depth analysis of how badly Kraven the Hunter did. We'll unpack that motion picture's box office shortcomings momentarily, but around these here box office parts, we do things chronologically. So let's start with the two biggest movies in North America and then we'll shift gears to everything that went haywire with Kraven the Hunter. First, though, let's look at Moana 2, which had its third consecutive weekend atop the domestic box office. This Walt Disney Animation Studios release dropped 46% this weekend to gross another $27.6 million.
It's clear now the best box office comparison to Moana 2 is 2018's Ralph Breaks the Internet, a hit film that, because it was a sequel, was more frontloaded than usual for a Thanksgiving Disney cartoon, doing roughly 3.6 times its three-day domestic opening weekend. For comparison’s sake, Moana did 4.5 times its opening weekend and Tangled did four times its three-day bow. Moana 2 is still trouncing other recent Disney Animation Thanksgiving releases in raw weekend grosses, however, its 46% drop this frame (without any new family movies in sight) was significantly more than Ralph’s 36% third-weekend dip.
To date, Moana 2 has grossed a robust $337.6 million domestically and should have no trouble sailing past $450 million domestically thanks to the end-of-December holidays. Don't forget, Ralph Breaks the Internet made a little over $60 million more domestically after its third-weekend haul of $16.25 million. Grossing a little over $11 million more than that cume this frame, Moana 2 should accumulate noticeably more than $60 million in the rest of its North American run. It's falling much faster than other Disney Animation Thanksgiving tentpoles, but Moana 2 is still a box office powerhouse.
Speaking of lingering domestic hits, Wicked grossed another $23.5 million this frame, a 35% dip from last weekend. It's now grossed exactly $360 million domestically, surpassing Aladdin's $356.6 million North American haul to become the second-biggest live-action musical ever in this territory. A domestic total of at least $430 million is well within reach for this Jon M. Chu directorial effort, especially since there aren’t any other big live-action tentpoles (save for the family-friendly Sonic the Hedgehog 3) opening between now and the end of the year.
Certainly, Kraven the Hunter poses no threat to Elphaba and Glinda. Grossing just $10.7 million over its domestic opening weekend, Kraven the Hunter was an extraordinary box office bomb right out of the gate. In the pantheon of comic book adaptations, Kraven the Hunter opened 19% worse than prior Aaron Taylor-Jonson movie Kick-Ass 2, 15% worse than R.I.P.D., 11% worse than 2019's Hellboy, 9% worse than two 1994 superhero movies, The Crow and The Shadow, and just 1% better than Scott Pilgrim vs. the World from 2010. All of these are without taking inflation into account. Bloodshot opened to just $1.6 million less domestically and both didn't have the Marvel brand name AND were released when a pandemic was starting to keep everyone in their homes.
Kraven the Hunter was a dead movie walking for eons now, especially after prior Sony’s Spider-Man Universe titles Morbius and Madame Web catastrophically flopped. Finally reaching multiplexes just one month shy of two years after its original January 2023 release date, Kraven the Hunter’s marketing was minimal and lacked much flair. Plus, the troubled box office track record for comic book adaptation movies in 2023 and 2024 (hi The Flash, The Crow, Joker: Folie a Deux, The Marvels, Blue Beetle, and Madame Web!) also ensured audiences were ambivalent to the very existence of this title. If people didn’t turn out for a Captain Marvel sequel, how much demand was there for a Kraven the Hunter sequel?
Reports of Kraven’s costs range from $110-130 million. Its domestic haul is going to be a fraction of 2020s Sony/Columbia Pictures titles like The Woman King, Anyone But You, A Man Called Otto, It Ends With Us, No Hard Feelings, and Where the Crawdads Sing, all of which cost way less to make than Kraven. The message here is obvious: studios need to stop spending endless heaps of money trying to chase Disney’s biggest hits and instead make movies the Mouse House doesn’t provide.
There’s an audience for theatrical rom-coms, inspirational dramas, comedies, or any other genres…they just need to be appealing to the general public and marketed well! Sadly, Sony's upcoming movies include new Anaconda, Blue Streak, and St. Elmo's Fire sequels, not to mention a View-Master movie adaptation, so more Kraven the Hunter-sized flops are in the outfit's future. “How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?!?”
In fourth place was Gladiator II, which grossed $7.8 million in its fourth weekend. With $145.9 million domestically to date, it'll probably take in between $30 and $35 million thanks to the end of December holidays. Rounding out the top five was The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which cratered with just $4.6 million. A minimally promoted offshoot of the Lord of the Rings saga, Rohirrim just had no hype behind it and was covering Middle-Earth material too obscure to ever resonate with the broader public. The fact that there’s not a big pre-existing fanbase for anime Lord of the Rings material also prevented this from hitting the box office heights of the larger Crunchryoll releases.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is the only domestic Warner Bros. Pictures release between Joker: Folie a Deux in the first weekend of October 2024 and Companion at the very end of January 2025. This studio's had a terrible 2024, just an absolutely dreadful year at the box office. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a massive hit, but its only other moneymakers (Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) were Warner Bros. movies it chipped in some money for. Flops like Furiosa, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One, Joker: Folie a Deux, and now War of the Rohirrim dominated the year. Exempting the years 2020-2022 (which were severely impacted by COVID-19), WB's projected $1.160-ish billion final gross for 2024 will be the studio's lowest annual haul since 2006.
Absolute madness. David Zaslav continues to fail and fail hard.
Moving on, Red One dipped 37% this weekend to gross another $4.4 million. That's a solid hold considering Red One just debuted on Amazon Prime streaming. Red One has now grossed $92.6 million domestically and should get past $100 million in this territory. Interstellar continued its incredible domestic run by dipping just 28% this weekend and grossing another $3.3 million. Amassing that at 321 locations gave it an incredible $10,327 per theater average. Interstellar's lifetime domestic haul is now at $199.7 million and it should exceed $200 million in North America sometime today.
Pushpa: The Rule - Part 2 fell 67% this weekend to gross another $1.6 million for a $13 million lifetime domestic haul. With Christmas fast approaching, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever dipped only 10% to gross another $1.356 million for a $36.6 million domestic haul. It should get past $40 million in its lifetime run. Cracking the top ten while still playing in just 460 theaters was Queer, which grossed an alright $790,954 for a $1,719 per theater average. Not exceptional, but it's solid that this one cracked the top ten while still remaining in limited release. This Daniel Craig release has now cracked $1.92 million domestically.
Next up was another A24 holdover, Y2K, which plummeted 68% in its second weekend to gross just $684,957 for a ten-day domestic haul of $3.76 million. Flow, meanwhile, dipped a great 31% to gross $374,000 at 377 theaters for a $992 per theater average. This silent animated gem has grossed $1.32 million, making it only the fourth Janus Films release ever to hit $1+ million in North America. The Order failed to recoup in its second weekend of release, falling 58% to gross another $365,000. It's now hauled up only $1.63 million.
With award season starting to kick into high gear, a handful of award-season contenders held nicely this frame. A Real Pain dipped 23% to gross another $223,000 and a $7 million lifetime gross. Anora added 91 theaters and grossed $215,000 for a $1,005 per theater average and a $13.48 million domestic total. Conclave, meanwhile, grossed another $150,000 and dipped only 32% despite bowing on Peacock on Friday. It's now amassed $30.89 million in North America.
September 5 opened in seven locations this weekend and grossed $89,000 for a worrisome per-theater average of $12,714. The Return, in its second weekend of release, dropped 78% to gross just another $79,791 for a $650,833 domestic total. Having a fantastic limited-release opening this frame was Nickel Boys. Grossing $60,844 from two theaters, Nickel Boys had a $30,422 per theater average. That's the ninth-best limited-release opening weekend per theater average of 2024.
Speaking of movies benefiting from award season attention, All We Imagine as Light bolstered its theater count to 34 locations and grossed $57,000 for a $1,676 per theater average. Its domestic gross now stands at $431,271. Compared to fellow November Janus Films release Drive My Car, Light is doing fantastic and running a little over 50% ahead of Car at the same point domestically. After five weekends of domestic play, All We Imagine as Light is clearly set up for a long lucrative North American run.
In its second weekend of release, The End cratered with just $51,200 from 151 theaters for a $339 per theater average and an $80,075 domestic total. The Last Showgirl opened to $50,300 in a single location this frame before it goes into wide release on January 10th. Oh, Canada expanded into 74 locations and grossed $49,427 for an underwhelming $667 per theater average and a $100,512 domestic total. top ten movies this weekend grossed Finally, The Seed of the Sacred Fig expanded to nine locations and grossed $25,543 (even with the last frame) for a $2,838 per theater average. It's now grossed $137,494 domestically.
The top ten movies this weekend grossed $87.6 million, a normal gross for the final weekend before big December tentpoles arrive in the marketplace. For comparison’s sake, the December 8-10, 2017 frame (led by Coco for the third consecutive weekend) grossed $70.6 million, a haul Star Wars: The Last Jedi would triple all on its own just one weekend later! Next frame, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King should bring some extra energy to the marketplace just in time for the end of the year. Moana 2 and Wicked are also clearly going to keep on rocking in the marketplace.
December 2024 to date has grossed $394.69 million, which already means it grossed nearly 60% of December 2022's entire haul before the big December blockbusters arrived. Hitting $1+ billion for the month should be well within reach. Heck, there's a good chance this month approaches the $1.071 billion haul of pre-COVID month December 2018, which would be fantastic. Fingers crossed the final wide releases of the year live up to (and exceed) expectations for the sake of theater owners and employees. If things end on a holly jolly note, then Kraven the Hunter’s failures should fade from memory fast.