The Color Purple has provided the year-end holiday box office with some much-needed joy.
On Monday, the musical, which was produced by Oprah and Steven Spielberg, debuted in 3,142 theaters to $18.1 million. This is the second-highest opening day gross for a film and the highest since 2009 overall. Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Colman Domingo feature in Blitz Bazawule’s adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway production of the beloved Alice Walker novel.
Without adjusting for inflation, the record for the largest Christmas Day opening is held by Sherlock Holmes (2009), which grossed $24.6 million.
The Boys in the Boat, another film directed by George Clooney and debuting on Christmas Day, also performed considerably better than anticipated, grossing $5.7 million from 2,557 locations. The adult drama produced by MGM and Amazon, which also featured Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner, shared an A CinemaScore with The Color Purple. With a B CinemaScore, Michael Mann’s Ferrari, which also debuted on December 25, earned $2.9 million from 2,330 locations.
Although The Color Purple easily surpassed the $10.6 million opening day revenue of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, directed by James Wan, Aquaman 2 emerged victorious over the extended Christmas weekend with a $38.3 million four-day gross from 3,706 theaters in the United States. However, the superhero sequel, which also received a lackluster B CinemaScore, has little to be proud of after averaging one of the worst beginnings in DC Cinematic Universe history. The superhero sequel directed by Jason Momoa performed better internationally, grossing $80.1 million across 72 markets, with China contributing the most, or $30.4 million.
The inaugural Aquaman dominated the year-end holiday season in 2018 with a three-day debut totaling $67.9 million from December 21st to the 23rd. Its domestic total for the day, which transpired on a Tuesday that year, was a noteworthy $105.4 million (December 25th generated $22 million). Without adjusting for inflation, the film grossed $1.15 billion internationally and $335.1 million domestically, the highest-grossing opening for a DCEU film ever.
The film by Wan provides additional support for the superhero fatigue theory. Aquaman 2 opened with a lower total than The Marvels, a recent box office failure from competing Marvel Studios, which debuted at $46.1 million.
The Christmas box office feast of this year was a mixed bag. The four-day weekend generated eleven percent more revenue than the corresponding period in 2022, but forty-six percent less than in 2019, a significant pre-pandemic benchmark. Furthermore, during the three-day weekend of December 22-24, revenue increased by one percent compared to the same period in 2022, but declined by 62 percent. Comparing year-end holidays to the same period last year can be challenging due to the fact that December 25 is a movable target.
Among Aquaman 2, Wonka (also a musical), and The Color Purple, Warners undoubtedly dominated the holiday marquee this year.
Wonka, which debuted the weekend prior to the holiday, accumulated $28.4 million from 4,213 locations for a domestic cume of $85.9 million, good for second place on the four-day holiday chart. Internationally, the film directed by Timothée Chalamet is performing exceptionally well, having amassed $171.3 million thus far for a total of $257.2 million as of Monday. Wonka and Color Purple are demonstrating that musicals may not be an endangered species after all, and The Color Purple’s No. 3 spot on the holiday chart despite having only debuted for one day is no minor accomplishment.
On the four-day tally, Illumination and Universal’s animated family film Migration debuted at number four. The tentpole has recorded its lowest-ever four-day opening at $17.5 million, according to data from Illumination. Internationally, the film has performed lackluster thus far, grossing an estimated $22 million from 43 markets as of Sunday.
Migration will not receive its definitive assessment until the weekend following New Year’s, as the week between Christmas and New Year’s is the busiest period of the film industry. However, Disney was skewed when Wish grossed $32.5 million in its first five days of release on Thanksgiving of last month.
Similar to the superhero archetype, the animated theatrical market is a source of concern throughout Hollywood.
Anyone But You, a romantic comedy produced by Columbia/Sony, debuted in fifth position for the four days, grossing an estimated $8 million from 3,055 theaters. Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell star in the new film, which received a B+ CinemaScore. (The studio prefers an A-plus grade or a variation thereon for the majority of films.)
Nearly 80% of all ticket purchasers for Anyone But You were female, whereas at least 66% of those for The Iron Claw, an A24 wrestling drama starring Zac Efron, were male. The film debuted at No. 6 with a respectable $6.8 million from 2,774 theaters, surpassing initial expectations.
Searchlight Pictures debuted the critically acclaimed All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh in four locations across New York and Los Angeles at the specialty box office. The estimated location average for the four-day festival is $36,000, which is the highest of any film to appear on the Christmas weekend chart.
