By In all honesty, I forgot movies had even been released this past weekend. So little has been reported about the box office business for the weekend of December 1-3, 2023, that I figured everything kind of stopped. Looking at the overall grosses, too, you would think so as well. Thankfully, Beyoncé was there to pick up the slack with her concert film Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.
The movie is off to a good start, earning a solid $21 million domestically and an additional $6.4 million globally. It’s certainly not pulling the same numbers as Taylor’s Swift Eras Tour film, but both movies show a clear appetite for theatrical concert films. I’m sure studio executives will completely misread the success of these two movies, but it would be nice to see more films of its ilk.
In second place came The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with $14.5 million, further cementing the film as a moderate success. Lionsgate is likely happy with that turnabout because John Woo’s latest, Silent Night, only managed a $3 million debut at number nine. That’s incredibly low for such a prolific director.
Godzilla Minus One took number three with $11 million for its US debut, which is incredible. The film was made on a budget of $15 million and while there are certain realities of the Japanese film industry that aren’t being discussed, at least this film is on its way to being a big hit. Going further down the list, though, everything else is mostly floundering at the box office.
Here are the top 10 movies for the weekend of December 1-3, 2023. All totals listed are domestic:
- Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé – $21 million
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – $14.5 million
- Godzilla Minus One – $11 million
- Trolls Band Together – $7.6 million
- Wish – $7.4 million
- Napoleon – $7.1 million
- Animal – $6.1 million
- The Shift – $4.3 million
- Silent Night – $3 million
- Thanksgiving – $2.6 million
