Monday Update: “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch”… and you’re also a rich one, as Universal’s animated holiday comedy Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch opened to $67.5M.

That was about in line with pre-release expectations, although it fell about 27% behind the $90.4M inflation-adjusted opening of 2000’s live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Last weekend’s leader, Fox’s biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, dropped -39% in its sophomore frame to capture second place with $31.2M.

Paramount’s new horror action release Overlord started in third place with $10.2M, about in line with pre-release expectations.

Sony’s action drama The Girl in the Spider’s Web came in a bit below expectations with a sixth place opening of $7.8M.

That’s -38% behind the December 2011 opening of predecessor film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch also posted the weekend’s highest per-screen average, including limited or platform releases, at $16,318.

Comparisons

Total box office this weekend was $167.1M.

That’s +14.6% above last weekend and -10.3% above this same weekend last year, when Thor: Ragnarok led for a second frame with $57.0M.

Year-to-date box office stands at $10.09B. That’s +10.8% ahead of this same date last year, down from +11.1% after last weekend.

Demographics

Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch audience was 55.8% female, 53.5% under age 25, and 18.5% over age 50.

Audience demographics from Vertigo for Overlord and The Girl in the Spider’s Web were not immediately available. With those two caveats:

The most male audience in this weekend’s top 10 was Venom at 66.7%, while the most female audience was Nobody’s Fool at 65.9%.

The most under-25 audience in this weekend’s top 10 was Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch at 53.5%, while the most over-25 audience was A Star Is Born at 83.2%.

A full demographic breakdown of the top 30 movies this weekend, courtesy of BoxofficeProfile by Vertigo, is included below:

Our full table of weekend actuals is below, followed by our Sunday update featuring fuller analysis.

Sunday Update: The Grinch had something to smile about this weekend.

The animated retelling of the classic Dr. Seuss tale rang in the holiday season with a fantastic $66 million, giving it the third-highest animated opening in the month of November. Elsewhere, the decidedly non-family friendly likes of Overlord and The Girl in the Spider’s Web had more modest debuts, while holdover Bohemian Rhapsody continued to draw in crowds in its sophomore frame.

Capitalizing on audiences’ seemingly undying affection for the cranky green misfit, The Grinch became the second blockbuster big-screen outing for the beloved character after 2000’s live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey. That film debuted to an impressive $55 million in its opening frame (or around $94 million adjusted for inflation) and finished its run with over $260 million in North America. Like that movie, the new Grinch seems destined to perform strongly through the remainder of the season as it looks forward to a full six weeks of play before Christmas.

While reviews for The Grinch were decidedly mixed (it currently sits at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes), moviegoers seemed to like it more, at least based on its “A-” Cinemascore and 72% audience rating on Flixster. The Jim Carrey Grinch wasn’t beloved by critics either (52% on Rotten Tomatoes), but that certainly didn’t stop it from becoming a massive hit. Also weighing in this Grinch‘s favor is the relative dearth of animated releases in the marketplace, with the last major one being September’s Smallfoot.

In the scheme of 2018 animated releases, The Grinch now boasts the second-highest opening weekend of the year after Disney’s Incredibles 2, which took in a record-breaking $182.6 million back in June. Additionally, it set an opening weekend record for a Christmas film (not adjusting for inflation), besting the last Grinch‘s $55.4 million debut. Among Illumination animation releases, meanwhile, it fell just a tad short of both Dr. Suess’ The Lorax ($70.2 million debut, $214 million total) and last year’s Despicable Me 3, which opened to $72.4 million on its way to a $264.6 million total.

Falling to second place after debuting to a stellar $51 million last weekend was Fox’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which brought in an estimated $30.8 million in its sophomore frame. That represents a drop of just 40% from last weekend’s total, a modest decline that puts the Freddie Mercury biopic just over the $100 million mark after ten days of release. That’s a marginally higher second-weekend drop than A Star Is Born‘s 33.7%, though that film didn’t suffer the loss of IMAX and PLF screens, which put a bit more of a dent in Rhapsody‘s second-weekend grosses. Nonetheless, it’s a sturdy hold that suggests word-of-mouth has been strong for the musical drama.

Debuting in third place was the WWII horror movie Overlord, which took in $10.1 million in its opening frame. The Paramount release came in slightly lower than Annihilation, another R-rated horror/sci-fi that opened to $11 million back in March and finished its run with $32.7 million. While horror has been remarkably hot as of late, Overlord is an unusual brew, mixing elements of a period war film with a B-movie genre flick. This made it perhaps more difficult to market than a more traditional horror movie like Halloween or The Nun, two massive fall hits that also benefitted from being continuations of pre-existing franchises. That said, this one at least had the advantage of J.J. Abrams’ name above the title (the director produced the film through his Bad Robot Productions) as well as a solid 81% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which may have convinced more discerning audience members to check it out.

Fourth place went to Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which brought in an estimated $9.6 million in its sophomore frame after debuting to a soft $20.3 million last weekend. Dropping 52%, the film was undoubtedly dinged by the The Grinch’s strong opening this weekend. While it’s possible that the Christmas-themed film will hold up better in subsequent weekends with the holidays just around the corner, so far this has been a disappointing performance for a film reportedly budgeted at $120 million. Its total now stands at $35.2 million after ten days.

Down in fifth was The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the latest American adaptation of the Stieg Larsson book series. This one debuted to a soft $8.015 million, which is off significantly from the $12.7 million opening of the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo back in 2011. That said, Tattoo benefitted from the name recognition of director David Fincher and star Daniel Craig, whereas Spider’s Web was directed by Fede Alvarez, who last helmed the hit home-invasion horror film Don’t Breathe. Dragon Tattoo also boasted a very strong 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, which helped power it to an impressive $102.5 million total in North America (albeit on a steep budget of $90 million). Spider’s Web, on the other hand, was less well-received by critics with 44% on the review aggregator. That, combined with a just-okay “B” Cinemascore (vs. an “A” for Tattoo), suggests it likely won’t enjoy the staying power as its predecessor.

Sixth place went to Warner Bros.’ A Star Is Born, which continued its strong run with an estimated $8.010 million. That’s a drop of just 27% for the Lady Gaga-Bradley Cooper romance, which has $178 million in the bank after six weekends of release. The Oscar-tipped title has now surpassed the lifetime gross of last year’s musical blockbuster The Greatest Showman, which finished its run with $174.3 million in North America.

Seventh went to Nobody’s Fool, which brought in an estimated $6.5 million in its sophomore frame. The Tyler Perry-directed comedy starring Tiffany Haddish fell 52% this weekend and now has a total of $24.2 million after ten days.

In eighth place, Venom brought in an estimated $4.8 million, giving the Tom Hardy superhero flick $206.2 million after six weeks, while Universal’s Halloween tumbled 64% to ninth with an estimated $3.8 million, giving the Michael Myers sequel $156.8 million after four weeks of release. The horror reboot has fallen sharply in the wake of the Halloween holiday and will remain the second highest-grossing horror title of 2018 after A Quiet Place, which finished with $188 million earlier this year.

Rounding out the Top 10, The Hate U Give brought in an estimated $2.07 million, giving the Fox drama $26.7 million after six weeks of release.

Outside the Top 10, Amazon Studios’ Beautiful Boy expanded to 776 locations after four weeks of limited release and brought in an estimated $1.4 million, good for a per-screen average of $1,810. The total for the Timothee Chalamet-Steve Carell drama now stands at $5.1 million through Sunday.

Limited Release: 

Sony/Columbia’s The Front Runner opened to an estimated $56K on four screens, giving the Jason Reitman drama a per-screen average of $14K in its limited debut. The film, which stars Hugh Jackman as disgraced Democratic presidential nominee Gary Hart, will expand wider in the coming weeks. Its total stands at $76K after opening on Tuesday.

After enjoying a strong debut of $207K on just four screens last weekend, Boy Erased expanded to 77 locations and brought in an estimated $725K, good for a per-screen average of $9,416. The total for the Focus Features drama starring Lucas Hedges now stands at $997K.

Fox Searchlight’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? expanded to 391 locations and brought in an estimated $1.47 million, good for a per-screen average of $3,772. The Melissa McCarthy vehicle, which is based on the book of the same name by literary forger Lee Israel, now has $3.6 million after four weeks of release.

Aviron’s A Private War expanded to 38 theaters and brought in an estimated $201K, giving the Rosamund Pike drama a per-screen average of $5,300 and a total of $283K so far.

Overseas Update:

Venom debuted to a massive $111 million in China this weekend, marking it as the second-highest opening for a superhero film ever in the country (after Avengers: Infinity War), the fifth best launch of all time for an imported film, and Sony’s biggest opening ever. The debut was powered by a positive audience reaction there, with a strong 9.4 rating on the audience review aggregator Mayoan. Its overseas total for the weekend was $123.1 million, bringing its international cume to $467.3 million and its worldwide tally to a sensational $673.5 million.

The Grinch opened to $12.7 million in 23 overseas markets, bringing its worldwide debut to $78.7 million. That number included $6.5 million in the U.K. and Ireland and $1.3 million in Brazil.

Bohemian Rhapsody took in an estimated $63 million overseas this weekend, another spectacular total that brings its international cume to an incredible $185 million. Current totals include $38.1 million in the U.K., $14.6 million in South Korea, $14.3 million in France, $12.4 million in both Mexico and Australia, and $10.3 million in Germany.

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms brought in an estimated $13.5 million in 45 territories, bringing its international total to $61.4 million and its global cume to $96.7 million.

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