Maxance Vincent
After Taylor Swift ruled the big screen in October, it’s Beyoncé‘s time to shine, with Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé taking the top spot this weekend with a $21 million tally. While it’s not as impressive as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour‘s opening weekend numbers, it is still remarkable as the Renaissance tour has captured the hearts and spirits of all music lovers for the past year.
Meanwhile, Godzilla made quite the splash this weekend, with Toho’s Godzilla Minus One now having the highest opening weekend of any Japanese Godzilla film in North America, with a $11 million cume. There have been many discussions on its remarkable $15 million budget, but one needs to bring so much context that Japanese productions aren’t the same as Hollywood productions.
Had Godzilla Minus One been made in America, it likely would’ve cost upwards of $200 million to produce. Comparing a Japanese film to an American one is a real apples and oranges situation, but the fact that Toho’s 70th anniversary Godzilla film is as much of a hit internationally as it is domestically is a very good sign for the future of the franchise beyond the MonsterVerse.
Sandeep Reddy Venga‘s Animal also made the top ten this weekend despite negative reviews from critics and one of the longest runtimes for an Indian movie ever. It’s not as long as Ashutosh Gowariker‘s Lagaan, which became the first Indian film nominated for an Oscar, but it’s still impressively long at 201 minutes. In 700 theatres, the film grossed over $6.1 million, which is one of the most impressive international numbers we’ve had from an Indian production this year.
However, it’ll be interesting to see if Prashanth Neel‘s Salaar: Part One – Ceasefire and Rajkumar Hirani‘s Dunki crack the top ten during the core of the Christmas movie season, as both films are coming out on the same day as James Wan‘s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Forget Barbenheimer; you’ve got a double-header of two of the biggest Indian stars out there: Prabhas and Shah Rukh Khan. Who will come out on top? My money’s on SRK because he loves to break his own records, but Prabhas is as big of a star internationally as he is in India, and Prashanth Neel’s KGF films were highly successful commercially despite a largely negative critical buzz.
Angel Studios once again cracked the top ten with their faith-based sci-fi movie, The Shift, topping John Woo‘s Silent Night with a $4.3 million tally. Woo’s first American movie in twenty years, unfortunately, disappointed with a $3 million cume, just ahead of Eli Roth‘s Thanksgiving, which dropped precipitously this weekend, alongside Disney’s Wish and Ridley Scott‘s Napoleon. This weekend at the movies was one of its most diverse, with something for everyone, and it looks like Godzilla and Beyoncé would reign supreme as the true Kings and Queens of the box office, while the king of action had a hard time connecting with audiences with his return to Hollywood.
Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:
- Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (Parkwood Entertainment): $21.0M – 2,539 theatres
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Lionsgate): $14.5M (-50.1%) – 3,691 theatres
- Godzilla Minus One (Toho): $11.0M – 2,308 theatres
- Trolls Band Together (Universal): $7.6M (-57.3%) – 3,613 theatres
- Wish (Disney): $7.4M (-62.4%) – 3,900 theatres
- Napoleon (Sony/Apple TV+): $7.1M (-65.5%) – 3,500 theatres
- Animal (T-Series): $6.1M – 700 theatres
- The Shift (Angel Studios): $4.3M – 2,450 theatres
- Silent Night (Lionsgate): $3.0M – 1,870 theatres
- Thanksgiving (Sony): $2.6M (-62.8%) – 2,506 theatres
Source: Box Office Mojo
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