Box Office Update: Black Panther remains in first while Strange World Bombs and Glass Onion soars

With Thanksgiving over and the weekend upon us, we are getting a better picture of the numbers for this long holiday weekend. As expected, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is coming in first place with an estimated 5-day take between $60-$67 million with $8.1 million of that coming on Thanksgiving day. That is good news for the movie as it inches closer to a $600 million worldwide gross which is around its break even point with a massive $250 million budget. Check out our 10/10 review here.

However it isn’t all good news for Disney as their big animated Holiday entry Strange World appears to be a pretty sizable bomb. With a budget reported to be as high as $180 million, the movie needed to get off to a far better start than just over $20 million with $2.5 million of that coming on Thanksgiving. As I said in my predictions, the trailers for this one just didn’t look like something worth rushing out to see. I also think Disney may be regretting their decision to release films straight to their Disney+ service as it appears people are just deciding to wait to watch the films together in their own homes rather than spend $100 for a few hours at the theater. Between this and Lightyear underperforming, Disney may need to rethink a few things. Check out our 8/10 review here.

Another studio that may want to rethink how they release their films, Netflix, as they have their first ever bonafide box office hit with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The limited release is playing on less than 700 screens but is seeing strong numbers with an estimated 5-day take of around $13 million with $1.8 of that coming on Thanksgiving. Imagine how big this one could have gone if it was given a full on wide theatrical release? And Netflix, imagine how many copies of the 4K/ Blu Ray you will sell when you decide to release it on physical media! It may be time to reassess your business model! Check out our 8/10 review here.

The other new/ expanding releases seem to be falling in line with our predictions with Devotion seeing a 5-day take around $10 million ($1.2 million on Thanksgiving) while Bones and All is looking at $3.2 for the 5-day total ($436,000 on Thanksgiving) and Steven Spielberg looks at his second underperformer in a row as The Fabelmans looks at just a $3 million 5-day take ($480,000 on Thanksgiving). These films will look to Award season pushes to keep them afloat for the next few months. 

Did you make it to theaters yet this weekend? If so, let us know what you saw in the comments section and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for a full rundown of this Thanksgiving Weekend’s box office.