Box-Office Weekend: Ford v Ferrari In Driver’s Seat
Christian Bale and Matt Damon owned the box-office weekend as their new film Ford v Ferrari easily took the weekend’s top spot. The film brought in $31.0 million domestically in its opening weekend, a full $22 million ahead of its closest competition.
Meanwhile, last week’s top finisher, Midway, made $8.8 million, giving it second-place and a two-week tally of $35.1 million. That kind of sharp drop suggests that the holiday helped the film’s debut weekend and a steady decline is in store for the film in the coming weeks.
Just behind Midway, was third-place finisher Charlie’s Angels, which brought in $8.6 million in its first weekend of release. Incidentally, this also means the film ostensibly tied with fourth-place entry Playing with Fire, which also took in $8.6 million over the weekend as the film dropped from third place last weekend, despite a two-week total of $22.6 million.
The holiday-themed Last Christmas, finished in fifth place with $6.7 million over the weekend, giving the film a four-week total of $22.6 million as it tries to stick around long enough to possibly enjoy a resurgence come the holiday season.
Probably the biggest drop of the weekend was witnessed by the horror film Doctor Sleep, which plummeted from a second-place finish last weekend to a sixth-place one this week. The film did add $6.2 million to give it a two-week tally of $22.0 million.
The final newcomer to the top ten this weekend, The Good Liar, finished in the seventh spot with $5.7 million over the weekend. This was just good enough to best Joker, which dropped from sixth to seventh place despite adding $5.6 million, giving the villain origin story a six-week total of $322.6 million.
Another film experiencing a big drop in the standings this weekend was Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which fell from seventh to ninth place earning just $5.2 million, giving the film a five-week cumulative of $106.0 million.
Finally, the biopic, of sorts, Harriet, crept back into the top ten in this weekend’s final spot with $4.8 million, giving the film a three-week total of $31.9 million. Three films that were pushed from the weekend box office were: Terminator: Dark Fate, which leaves having collected $56.9 million; Zombieland: Double Tap, which managed to take down $70.4 million; and, The Addams Family, which made $92.9 million before riding off into the sunset.
Next weekend should see Frozen II from Disney dominate the box-office weekend. Though it will be up against counter-programming choices such as Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and the action film 21 Bridges.
Weekend Box-Office (November 15th – November 17th)
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.