Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter” and Warner Bros.’ “Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” are exploding in their first weekends, while Disney’s “Moana 2” and Universal’s “Wicked” maintain their dominance of the box office charts for another weekend.
With a budget that skyrocketed to $110 million following a 14-month delay due to a strike, the Marvel antihero adaption “Kraven” only made $11 million on its first weekend of release.
That is less than the lowest opening weekend ever for a Sony-produced Marvel movie, which was $15.3 million for “Madame Web.” With a CinemaScore rating of C and a number of holiday releases approaching, movie appears that “Kraven” won’t be showing for very long in cinemas next weekend.
After its third weekend, “Moana 2” is at the top of the charts with $26.6 million domestic and $84 million globally, for a total of $337.5 million domestic and $717 million worldwide. As it moves closer to becoming Walt Disney Animation’s first $1 billion grosser since the COVID-19 epidemic, it has now surpassed the original “Moana”‘s unadjusted $643 million lifetime gross.
With $22.5 million in its fourth weekend, “Wicked” is right behind “Moana 2,” with a total of $359 million domestically and $525 million globally. With Universal hosting sing-along screenings during the holidays, the popular Jon M. Chu musical, which dropped 55% last weekend, only dropped 39% domestically.
Paramount’s “Gladiator II” is in fourth on the charts behind “Kraven” with $7.8 million in its third weekend, putting on the threshold of $400 million worldwide with $145.9 million in North America.
“Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” completes the top 5 with an opening of just $4.6 million. The $30 million budgeted anime film was greenlit in 2022 by New Line Cinema in an effort to retain the film rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth novels, though those rights were later secured through a partnership with the rights’ new owners, Embracer Media.
With a B on CinemaScore and a 52% Rotten Tomatoes score, the movie has received mixed reviews because it is unlikely to attract much attention outside of its specialized core demographic of fans of both anime and Tolkien.
In New York and Los Angeles, two possible Oscar hopefuls debuted in limited distribution. “Nickel Boys” was released by Amazon MGM at the Lincoln Square and Angelika in New York for a total of $60,824 for two screens. Later this month, the movie will open in Los Angeles, and in January, it will be released nationwide.
Paramount also released the true story thriller “September 5” in seven theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, grossing an estimated $89,000 for a $12,714 average. The retelling of the Munich Olympics terrorist attack through the perspective of ABC’s sports news team has an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score and will be released wide on Jan. 17
