Saturday Update: Paramount’s Office Christmas Party debuted to $6.6 million on Friday, landing within expectations as it heads toward a projected $17 million opening weekend. Meanwhile, Miss Sloane picked up $660,000 as it expanded into 1,648 locations, now eyeing a three-day frame around $1.9 million. Disney’s Moana added $4.147 million in its 17th day of release yesterday, lifting its domestic tally to $130.3 million as it holds course for a third consecutive weekend in first place with a projected $19.5 million.
Meanwhile, Fantastic Beasts added $2.85 million for a new domestic total of $191.4 million. It should bring in close to $10.5 million this weekend.
The big news, however, came on the limited release front. Nocturnal Animals delivered $1.1 million as it expanded into 1,262 locations this weekend, pacing for a strong $3.9 million this weekend. Manchester By the Sea took in $912,250 from 367 locations and should ring up $3.2 million this weekend.
And then there’s La La Land. The heavy awards favorite of the past few months doesn’t seem to be slowing down as it debuted to $300,000 from just 5 locations for a per-theater average of $60,000 in just one day. That came in just shy of the $65,112 PTA record set by The Grand Budapest Hotel in March 2014 when it opened to $260,447 from 4 locations — but La La Land still blew away the $33,901 first-day average of Birdman when it released to $135,602 in 4 locations back in October 2014.
We’ll have further coverage of this weekend with official studio estimates on Sunday. Our initial projections based on official Friday estimates are below.
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moana | $19,500,000 | -31% | 3,875 | 0 | $5,032 | $145,666,593 | 3 | Disney |
| 2 | Office Christmas Party | $17,000,000 | — | 3,210 | — | $5,296 | $17,000,000 | 1 | Paramount / DreamWorks |
| 3 | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | $10,500,000 | -42% | 3,626 | -362 | $2,896 | $199,025,903 | 4 | Warner Bros. |
| 4 | Arrival | $5,600,000 | -23% | 3,115 | 200 | $1,798 | $81,451,708 | 5 | Paramount |
| 5 | Doctor Strange | $4,500,000 | -33% | 2,763 | -172 | $1,629 | $222,231,446 | 6 | Disney |
| 6 | Allied | $4,000,000 | -43% | 3,018 | -142 | $1,325 | $35,633,452 | 3 | Paramount |
| 7 | Nocturnal Animals | $3,900,000 | 457% | 1,262 | 1135 | $3,090 | $6,926,128 | 4 | Focus |
| 8 | Trolls | $2,900,000 | -38% | 2,786 | -370 | $1,041 | $145,280,004 | 6 | Fox / DreamWorks Animation |
| 9 | Hacksaw Ridge | $2,300,000 | -31% | 2,277 | -217 | $1,010 | $60,862,448 | 6 | Lionsgate |
| 10 | Miss Sloane | $1,900,000 | 4136% | 1,648 | 1644 | $1,153 | $2,038,365 | 3 | EuropaCorp |
| 11 | Almost Christmas | $1,400,000 | -45% | 1,258 | -298 | $1,113 | $40,236,485 | 5 | Universal |
| 12 | Bad Santa 2 | $1,300,000 | -60% | 2,034 | -911 | $639 | $16,864,767 | 3 | Broad Green Pictures |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester By the Sea | $3,200,000 | 41% | 367 | 211 | $8,719 | $8,370,201 | 4 | Roadside / Amazon |
| 2 | Loving | $620,000 | -36% | 572 | 126 | $1,084 | $6,562,262 | 6 | Focus |
| 3 | The Accountant | $450,000 | -40% | 455 | -153 | $989 | $84,992,171 | 9 | Warner Bros. |
| # | TITLE | WEEKEND | LOCATIONS | AVG. | TOTAL | WKS. | DIST. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | La La Land | $950,000 | — | 5 | — | $190,000 | $950,000 | 1 | Lionsgate / Summit |
| 2 | Jackie | $475,000 | 70% | 26 | 21 | $18,269 | $839,825 | 2 | Fox Searchlight |
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Friday Update: Paramount reports that Office Christmas Party took in $950,000 from opening night shows on Thursday. By comparison, last December’s Sisters debuted to $769,000 on Thursday night, while November 2015’s The Night Before took in $550,000, Bad Moms earned $2 million in late July, and last month’s Bad Santa 2 earned $350,000 on Tuesday night.
All told, it looks like poor reviews will unfortunately hold back the holiday comedy, but we’ll see how things pan out in the days ahead. Based on Thursday night’s performance, it appears as though Disney’s Moana will have a solid chance to repeat as the #1 film this weekend as we had previously forecast on Wednesday.
Expanding into wide release this weekend is Miss Sloane, although no initial figures were available at the time of this post’s writing.
Official Friday estimates along with our weekend projections will be published here on Saturday morning.
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