“In the Heart of the Sea”, Warner Bros.’ 19th century whaling film starring Chris Hemsworth and directed by Ron Howard, generated an estimated $11 million in ticket sales in the USA and Canada. The social engagement for Star Wars has drowned many other feature films coming out this December and that trend is likely to continue through to the 1st week of January.
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But in the slow weekend, the true looming tidal wave is next week’s mega-release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The science-fiction franchise has earned $US244.5 million domestically. The Katniss finale has brought in $320 million overseas. The movie also got a berth in Imax theaters, the favorite destination of fanboys. It’s not great given the studio’s usual $100 million plus budgets and all the extra work that was poured into this one, but it’s hardly a flop. Chris Hemsworth, Ben Wishlaw, Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson star. But critics haven’t quite caught on, ranking it with only a 43% “fresh” rating on the critic site Rotten Tomatoes. Ticket buyers were a little kinder to Opie’s latest opus. Audiences gave it a B-plus grade, according to polling firm CinemaScore. With “The Force Awakens” lurking, few studios wanted to push out a new release ahead of the expected box-office behemoth. The movie raked in $11.3 million and seems to be going strong, though it had a weak start. “The Good Dinosaur”, $10.5 million ($14.3 million international). 4. Overseas, the feature has earned $78 million.
Meanwhile Creed continued its solid box office run, bringing in #10.1 million for its third week for a 33% hold. Spectre was down one place to sixth with $4 million, while holiday comedy The Night Before fell to seventh with $3.9 million.
The Michael Daugherty directorial Krampus managed to make the cut with its $8 million.
Just outside the top ten, Paramount’s acclaimed comedy/drama The Big Short had a spectacular debut on just eight screens in NY and Los Angeles. The film goes into wide release a week from this upcoming Wednesday.
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Let’s just say this weekend had a major case of the pre-Star Wars blues. “Point Break”, $12.3 million. 7.
