Fox’s “Ford v Ferrari” came out swinging in a weekend involving yet more records for “Joker” and another big studio flop.
“Ford V Ferrari” launched into first place this weekend, outperforming expectations to bring home $31M domestically. Directed by James Mangold (“Logan”, “Walk the Line”) the over 2H 30M sporting, family drama has been a major hit with audiences and critics alike, sitting at 81 on Metacritic and 8.3 from users on IMDB. Overseas, where the film carries the title of ‘Le Mans ‘66”, it scored $21.4M, giving it $52M worldwide. This extremely positive opening weekend may also bode well for Fox as they continue to push the film for Oscar consideration.
Dropping into second is Lionsgate and Roland Emmerich’s war drama “Midway”. Collecting just $8.75M in its second weekend, it now sits at $35M domestic and $53M worldwide.
However, it’s reported it may drop off second place when actual figures are released tomorrow, due to the tight nature of the race for second.
One of those competing with “Midway” is Sony’s “Charlie’s Angels”, which in no uncertain terms is the third big studio flop in as many weeks after Paramount’s “Terminator: Dark Fate” and Warner Bros “Doctor Sleep”.
The Elizabeth Banks directed reboot notched up a poor $8.6M domestically whilst drumming up $19.3M internationally, a couple of figures which are not nearly enough for a production costing just shy of $50M. Battling with the Angels is Paramount’s universally panned comedy “Playing with Fire” starring John Cena, which delivered an extremely respectable second weekend total of $8.55M, lifting its domestic cume to $25.4M. Whilst its overseas tally of $4.5M will be bolstered by December releases in Australia and the UK.
At the tail-end of the top five is the first of this year’s out and out Christmas Movies. Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) and Universal’s “Last Christmas”, inspired by the famous Wham Christmas classic stars Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding and added $6.7M domestic and $8.6M overseas giving the film a global total of $35.5M.
In weekly “Joker” watch, the DC comics adaptation and phenom made yet more history this week as it became not only the first R-rated movie in history to cross $1B, but also only the third movie, after “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and fellow DC adaptation “The Dark Knight” to do so without a Chinese release.
The most notable news in limited release came in the form of A24 Oscar contender “Waves”. The drama directed by Trey Edward Shults and starring Sterling K. Brown took just over $144,000 as it continues an extremely slow release as we approach Christmas.
Next weekend sees a return to the fold for the Disney machine as it rolls out the highly anticipated sequel, “Frozen 2”. The original film became a juggernaut in 2013, grossing over $1.2B worldwide, whilst hit song “Let It Go” went on to become one of the most-streamed
songs in history. Also being released next week is Sony’s Oscar player “A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood” the Mr. Rogers biopic starring Tom Hanks. Marielle Heller’s film will be rolled out in over 3000 locations.
1. Ford v Ferrari – $31M
2. Midway – $8.75M
3. Charlie’s Angels – $8.6M
4. Playing with Fire – $8.55M
5. Last Christmas – $6.7M
6. Doctor Sleep – $6.2M
7. The Good Liar – $5.7M
8. Joker – $5.6M
9. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil – $5.2M
10. Harriet – $4.8M
Anthony and Joe Russo are directing, and the secrecy surrounding Jupe’s character naturally leaves plenty of room for rumors about whether he could be connected to an established Marvel character,