‘Encanto,’ ‘House of Gucci’ Opens for Thanksgiving Thanksgiving – The Hollywood Reporter
While the number of movies showing in the long hallways of Thanksgiving 2021 isn’t close to reaching pre-pandemic levels, Hollywood is raking in profits from family ticket prices and adult drama.
Walt Disney Animation’s Original Musical Adventure Encanto topped the domestic charts with a Wednesday-Sunday opening of $40.3 million, the best start of a pandemic era for an animated title. That figure includes $27 million for the three-day weekend. Globally, Encanto started with $70 million.
In modern times, Disney has always released an animated movie around Thanksgiving, usually with big numbers. The last original movie, Coco, announced five-day holiday totals of $72.9 million in 2018.
When Encanto opened up to expectations, many in Hollywood had hoped it would do more. There is concern the speed at which the box office recovery, especially following the arrival of the new COVID variant omicron, could terrify domestic audiences after having already caused some cinemas in Europe to close.
Encanto, featuring original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the story of a Colombian teenager who must save the magic of her extended family, even though she has no special gift of her own. Directed by Byron Howard, Jared Bush, and Charise Castro Smith, while the voice cast includes Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, Wilmer Valderrama, Adassa, Diane Guerrero, Mauro Castillo, Angie Cepeda, Jessica Darrow, Rhenzy Feliz, Carolina Gaitán , Ravi Cabot-Conyers and John Leguizamo.
Powered by Latinos and an A CinemaScore in North America, Encanto is the studio’s first animated title to receive an exclusive theatrical screening since the COVID-19 crisis hit in spring 2020 (until recently, children under 11 could not be vaccinated). ).
MGM and United Artists’ Gucci house was another Thanksgiving winner.
Directed by Ridley Scott, Gucci grossed $21.8 million and $14.2 million for its opening weekend, both record numbers for an adult film during a pandemic and a reflection of the star’s appeal. Lady Gaga stars for all ages. Movie ranked 3rd after Encanto and keep Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
United Artists director of distribution Erik Lomis said: “This is clear progress. “The original stories are still important. I think that’s a big deal.”
Lomis is referring to both Gucci and Paul Thomas Anderson Licorice pizza, which MGM and United Artists opened to 70mm exclusively in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film hit a per-theater average of $84,000, by far the best average since the pandemic began.
One player in the prize race, ‘s house Gucci Lady Gaga stars as the wife of fashion brand Maurizio Gucci played by Adam Driver. Al Pacino and Jared Leto also star in this murderous revenge story. It received a B+ CinemaScore from audiences (one reason could be its 158-minute runtime).
An underrated new service is the reboot of Sony and Screen Gems Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City , with a 5-day debut of $8.8 million to come in at No. 5. The action-thriller is directed by Johannes Roberts and stars Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Tom Hopper, Avan Jogia, Donal Logue and Neal McDonough.
Sony is getting much better with Jason Reitman’s family friendliness Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which debuted last weekend and ended Sunday with an estimated 10-day domestic gross of $87.8 million.
Kingdom Come grossed $35.3 million for the Thanksgiving five-day frame – not far behind Encanto – includes $24.5 million for the weekend.
Warner Bros. King Richard fell to No. 7 in its second weekend to end Sunday with a low domestic gross of about $11 million. The adult and Oscar-hopeful film stars Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams. King Richard also available on HBO Max.
More to come.
