By This past weekend at the box office will be a historic moment in cinematic history, but probably not the reasons that Disney wanted. First off, Lionsgate is maybe pleased that The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes debuted at number one, though the belated prequel to the main series came in under expectations. Analysts were predicting a start north of $50 million and the film opened to $44 million. Internationally, it managed to take another $64 million, which is a solid enough start for a film with a reported budget of $100 million.
Where history was made deals with The Marvels’ second weekend gross. After debuting last week to the worst opening for an MCU film since 2008, The Marvels now holds the record for the largest second-week dropoff of not only an MCU movie but also of comic book films in general. Plummeting 78% and coming in at third place, the film took in another $10.2 million and is well on its way to being the first MCU film to not even break $100 million domestically. Ouch.
Second place went to Trolls Band Together, the third installment of the Trolls franchise that lived on thanks to its predecessor’s COVID-era success. While the domestic total of $30 million is hardly anything to write home about, internationally, Sony’s latest animated feature nabbed $76 million. I guess people are just dying to see crappy covers of pop songs and really tired jokes.
Elsewhere in the top 10, newcomers Thanksgiving and Next Goal Wins landed in fourth and seventh respectively. The remainder is comprised of films from previous weeks, with Five Nights at Freddy’s pulling a respectable $3.5 million for having released a month ago. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour film is also still grabbing multiple millions, further cementing it as the highest-grossing concert movie of all time.
Here are the top 10 films for the weekend of November 17-19, 2023. All totals listed are domestic:
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – $44 million
- Trolls Band Together – $30.6 million
- The Marvels – $10.2 million
- Thanksgiving – $10.2 million
- Five Nights at Freddy’s – $3.5 million
- The Holdovers – $2.7 million
- Next Goal Wins – $2.5 million
- Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour – $2.4 million
- Priscilla – $2.3 million
- Killers of the Flower Moon – $1.9 million
