Fri. Mar 29th, 2024


Numbers are beginning to roll in for this second week of December and they are slightly worse than expected. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever should easily take first with an estimated $11 million weekend based off a $2.8 million Friday. The film has surpassed the $400 million mark and is currently pacing 5% ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness at the same time in their respective runs.

Second place belongs to Violent Night with an estimated $8 million weekend based off a $2.4 million Friday (off just 40% from its opening). That is a pretty good hold for this new Christmas classic (yeah, I’m going to already declare this a classic as it really is a great addition to the R rated Christmas movie pantheon.)

Third through fifth place look to be holdovers Strange World ($3.6 million projected weekend); The Menu ($2.8 million projected weekend) and Devotion ($1.9 million projected weekend). Those all represent less than 30% drops per title.

On the limited release front, The Whale looks to have the best per theater average of 2022 with $360,000 made for the weekend on just 6 screens. That is great news for these sure to be Oscar contending films as most of them seem to have been tanking at the box office. The slow box office returns for films such as Fabelmans and Bones and All are seeing them hit streaming far earlier than expected.

Meanwhile the expansion of Spoiler Alert should crack the top ten with an estimated weekend take of $700,000 after a $230,000 Friday. While Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light looks to be another adult oriented bomb pulling in under $200,000 on 110 screens.

Did you make it to theaters this weekend? Or are you waiting for next week’s release of Avatar: The Way of Water. Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for a full run down of this weekend’s numbers.

By Dave Jenks

Dave Jenks is an American novelist and Veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Between those careers, he’s worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, divemaster, taxi driver, construction manager, and over the road truck driver, among many other things. He now lives on a sea island, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, with his wife and youngest daughter. They also have three grown children, five grand children, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. Stinnett grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico. His next dream is to one day visit and dive Cuba.