Typically the momentum of Christmas moviegoing spills over into Dec. 26, but that wasn’t the case this year as Warner Bros’ Wonka led all titles with $8.9M — the second lowest take for a No. 1 movie after Christmas (since 2000) ahead of the studio’s own Wonder Woman 1984 which made $5.8M when a bulk of the nation’s cinemas were closed due to Covid. Yikes!
In the last two years post pandemic, the No. 1 movie on Dec. 26 cleared some $30M-plus in a single day –we’re talking Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avatar: The Way of Water. In its pre-Covid heyday, Dec. 26 delivered $56.7M to Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2019, a record amount of cash earned by a movie the day after Christmas.
Warner Bros./DC’s B CinemaScore Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom after leading the weekend with a 4-day of $38.3M, fell to the No. 2 spot with $8.3M (-21% from Christmas) yesterday at 3,706 theaters.
Holiday moviegoing is supposed to be vibrant, shiny and bright, and slow doesn’t even begin to describe the ratcheting down of turnstiles.
Warner Bros.’ The Color Purple, which has completely revived the movie musical in a God-awful marketplace, saw $7M at 3,152, -61% from Christmas Day’s $18.15M. Note that the musical’s first day gross was boosted by a group sales program that the studio executed.
While Color Purple‘s Christmas opening day inched out Universal’s 2012 feature musical Les Miserables ($18.1M), that movie had a better second day hold, -33%, with $12.1M. Wonka will likely cross the $100M domestic mark today at 4,213 theaters, while Aquaman 2 rises to $46.6M at 3,706 and the 2x Golden Globe nominated Color Purple sees $25.1M.
Some might argue that in previous years, Dec. 26 fell on a Monday in 2022 and Sunday in 2021. Still, even the Tuesday post-Christmas daily grosses for Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avatar: The Way of Water were leaps and bounds higher at $21M+ apiece from what we saw yesterday with Wonka and Aquaman 2.
Illumination/Universal’s Migration saw $6.5M, +22% from Christmas’ $5.5M putting its running total through five days at $24.3M.
Amazon MGM’s George Clooney directed The Boys in the Boat grossed $3M on Tuesday, -47% from Christmas for a 2-day of $8.7M in 5th place for the day. The movie which boasts no marquee stars is playing solid in the flyover states and has an A CinemaScore.
Sixth place goes to Sony’s Anyone But You with $2.6M (+28% from Christmas’ $2M) and a running total over five days of $10.7M at 3,055 locations.
A24’s The Iron Claw in 7th posted $1.7M, -12% from Christmas, at 2,774 and a running total of $8.5M.
Eighth place belongs to NEON’s Michael Mann directed Ferrari with $1.5M, -47% from Christmas and previews of $2.85M for a $4.4M running total. While the movie’s Christmas day gross was slightly above that of All the Money in the World ($2.56M), Ferrari‘s Dec. 26 take is slightly under that of the Ridley Scott title’s same day of $1.76M.
Typically for these movies that open on Christmas day they’re bound to see 10x their opening day gross (not counting Christmas Eve previews). Look for a final for Boys in the Boat in the $40M range, Ferrari in the $20M vicinity (much like All the Money in the World‘s domestic final of $25.1M — that’s why we keep comping to it), and Color Purple well past the $100M mark.