Some incredible Christmas Day numbers, for three movies in particular, and none of them are “Wicked” or “Moana 2.” Exhibitors must be through the roof happy about these overperformances.
“A Complete Unknown” finally hit theaters yesterday and made $7.2M. This was the biggest opening day ever for a Searchlight film. The weekend looks great for James Mangold’s movie, starring Timothee Chalamet, as it could very well have a five-day $30M opening. Deadline has hinted that the budget was $70M.
Even more surprising, “Mufasa” has roared back to life with a $14.7M Wednesday. That’ll be good enough to top the box-office this weekend. After a very slow opening weekend, “Mufasa” can now take advantage of family films like “Moana 2” and “Wicked” having already been seen.
Meanwhile, Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” exceeded expectations with a Wednesday tally of $11.6M. It is now the second highest grossing R-rated film on Christmas Day.
”Nosferatu” is headed to a $30M+ five-day opening weekend — the biggest opening of Eggers’ career. With these numbers, it looks like his long-gestating “The Knight” will finally be greenlit, or at least we hope so.