Weekend Actuals: ‘Coco’ Repeats at #1 with $27.5M, ‘Justice League’ Runner-up with $16.6M

Monday Update:

It may be about the Day of the Dead, but Disney-Pixar’s Coco was anything but dead as it stayed on top for a second straight weekend with $27.5 million, above its Sunday estimate.

Warner Bros.’ Justice League also slightly exceeded its Sunday estimate, earning $16.6 million to take second place — although its 59 percent drop was by far the largest of any film in the top 10.

A24’s quirky comedy The Disaster Artist posted one of the best per-theater averages in a while for any film starting in at least 10 theaters, with $1.2 million on only 19 screens. While that’s a little below its Sunday estimate, it’s still a terrific start for the film.

The top 10 films this weekend earned $96.7 million total. That’s 46 percent below last weekend and 43 percent below the equivalent weekend last year — although both those comparisons may be unfair, since both those weekends featured new wide releases which this frame didn’t. Year-to-date box office stands at 4.1 percent below last year, the closest it’s been to even since early August.

See at bottom for our full table of weekend actuals, and read below for our Sunday update featuring further analysis.

Sunday Update:

Disney-Pixar’s Coco gave an encore performance on a typically slow weekend, finishing in first place with $26.1 million in its sophomore frame. That’s a drop of 48% from last weekend and gives the film $108.7 million in its first ten days, slightly behind Moana‘s $119.7 million over the same period last year and far ahead of 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, which grossed just $75.5 million by the end of its second weekend.

Justice League again finished in second with $16.5 million, bringing the Warner Bros. superhero extravaganza to $197 million in 15 days. Though it’s primed to cross the $200 million threshold this week, the latest DCEU entry is a box office disappointment by lofty superhero-movie standards, particularly given that it brought a number of A-list characters together in the same film.

Repeating in third place, Lionsgate’s Wonder enjoyed another great frame with $12.5 million, bringing its total gross thus far to a strong $88 million in just 15 days. The Julia Roberts-Owen Wilson weeper has been a big hit with audiences looking for inspirational fare during the holiday season and will easily top $100 million by next weekend.

In fourth place, Thor: Ragnarok added another $9.7 million to its already-gargantuan total, giving the Marvel superhero epic $291.4 million in five weeks. Look for it to cross $300 million by next weekend, by far the highest gross of any standalone Thor film (the next-highest, Thor: The Dark World, finished its domestic run with $206 million).

Daddy’s Home 2 came in fifth with $7.5 million, bringing its cume to $82.8 million in four weeks. That’s way behind the first film’s $129.5 million over the same timeframe. Sixth place, meanwhile, went to Fox’s hit adult-oriented thriller Murder on the Orient Express, which brought in another $6.7 million, good for $84.7 million thus far. The $100 million benchmark isn’t far off for the star-studded adaptation of Agatha Christie’s famed mystery novel.

In seventh place, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird did well in its wide expansion, grossing $4.54 million on 1,194 screens for a per-theater average of $3,806. That gives the Oscar-buzzed A24 release $17 million so far. Just a hair behind Lady Bird in eighth place is Fox Searchlight’s profane dramedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which also enjoyed a healthy wide expansion, grossing $4.53 million on 1,430 screens (a per-theater average of $3,168). The critically-acclaimed Fox Searchlight release starring Frances McDormand now has $13.6 million in four weeks of play.

Ninth place went to Sony’s faith-based animated comedy The Star, which brought in an estimated $4 million, good for a $27 million total after three weeks. Though this is miles off from Coco, the Walden Media co-financed film came with a much-cheaper $20 million price tag.

Rounding out the Top 10 was A Bad Moms Christmas, which brought in another $3.4 million in its fifth weekend. That gives the STX sequel $64.8 million thus far, a significant drop from the first film’s $95.2 million by the same point last year but still a reasonably good total considering the film’s reported $28 million budget.

Falling outside the Top 10 was the Denzel Washington legal drama Roman J. Israel, Esq., which faltered in its second week of wide release with just $1.9 million on 1,669 screens. The Sony release likely suffered from its mixed-to-poor reviews, as critical notices are especially important in a time of year chock-full of Oscar hopefuls vying for the dollars of discerning moviegoers.

Limited Release:

James Franco’s The Disaster Artist had a sensational debut this weekend, finishing with $1.2 million on only 19 screens, good for a per screen average of over $64,000. The biographical comedy/drama, which centers on the making of Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, reached the heights that it did thanks to almost universally-positive critical reviews, strong word-of-mouth, and major Oscar buzz for star and director James Franco. The A24 release had the fifth-highest per-theater average in history for a film opening on 10+ screens, though it bears mentioning that it falls outside the Top 20 on that measure when adjusted for inflation.

Fox Searchlight’s The Shape of Water also had an impressive debut in its first weekend, grossing $166,800 on just two screens. That gave the Guillermo Del Toro monster romance a per-theater average of $83,400. We’ll see how it does as it expands to the rest of the country in the coming weeks.

Sony Classics’ Call Me By Your Name continued to perform well in limited release, grossing an estimated $281,280 on four screens. That gives the critically-acclaimed drama a total thus far of $908,175 as it eyes an expansion in the coming weeks.

Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel opened to $140,555 on five screens, good for a $28,111 per-theater average. Critical buzz is decidedly on the negative end of the spectrum for this one, so look for a performance closer to Cafe Society than, say, Midnight in Paris.

Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour starring Gary Oldman grossed another $109,000 on four screens, good for a per-theater average of $27,250.

The Titanic 20th anniversary re-release grossed $415,000 on 87 screens, good for a per-theater average of $4,770. This is the second re-release for the record-breaking James Cameron blockbuster; in 2012, Titanic 3D added another $57.8 million in North America. Its lifetime total now stands at over $659 million domestically.

International Update:

Coco grossed $69 million overseas this weekend, including a sizzling $44.2 million in China, an increase of 148% from its debut there. With $75.6 million in the bank in just two weeks, it’s already within striking distance of Big Hero 6‘s $83.7 million total in China (albeit a long way off from Zootopia‘s $235 million).

Justice League grossed an estimated $35.7 million overseas in 66 markets, bringing its international total to $370.1 million and its global total to $567.4 million after three weeks. In China, its $98.5 million total surpassed both Wonder Woman and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, making it the highest-grossing DCEU film in the country to date.

Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok crossed the $800 million mark globally this weekend after six weeks of play, grossing another $16.5 million in overseas markets. In the all-important Chinese marketplace, its total currently stands at $112.1 million.

— written by Boxoffice staff writers Chris Eggertsen and Jesse Rifkin

Monday’s Weekend Actuals for Friday, December 1 – Sunday, December 3, 2017:

Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates for Friday, December 1 – Sunday, December 3, 2017: