Box Office: Encanto leads lackluster post-Thanksgiving weekend

The weekend after Thanksgiving always sees steep declines at the box office and this year was no exception. Encanto retained the top spot this weekend as the industry eagerly awaits the behemoth that will be Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Encanto took the top spot for the second weekend in a row with a gross of $12.7 million. That’s a drop of 53% and its second weekend is lower than the pre-pandemic second-weekend grosses of some of Disney’s lowest-grossing Thanksgiving films such as The Good Dinosaur ($15.3 million) and Tangled ($21.6 million). The good news for Encanto is that the film should rebound a bit throughout most of December and be able to leg out through the holiday. Most box office experts believe the film will tick past $100 million domestically before it’s all said and done but it will need some overseas help to break even for Disney. To date, Encanto has grossed $57.9 million domestically and $116 million worldwide.

Maintaining second place is Ghostbuster: Afterlife with a gross of $10.3 million. That’s a drop of 57% but the good news for the film is that it became profitable by the time business wrapped up last weekend. The budget is slim at $75 million and it has already grossed $102.2 million domestically. Moving the release date a week ahead of Thanksgiving was a smart move on Sony’s part and it’s paying off handsomely. International numbers are incoming for the film and will be added as they come in.

In third place, we once again have House of Gucci with a gross of $6.8 million. That’s a drop of 53% which is pretty much in line with all of the post-Thanksgiving releases. To date, House of Gucci has grossed $33.6 million domestically and the film took in another $14.8 million from 60 overseas markets which brings its global haul to $67.2 million.

Marvel’s Eternals placed fourth this weekend with a gross of $3.9 million. That’s a drop of 51% as the Marvel release prepares to make room for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Domestically, Eternals has grossed $156.5 million but the gage of its success has been its overseas business. Overseas, the film has pulled in $227.6 million for a worldwide take of $384.3 million. A $400 million worldwide haul is certainly not out of the question.

Rounding out the top five is Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers. This was a Fathom special event showing that opened on Wednesday and has been putting up solid numbers in the days since its release. The film’s weekend gross is about $3.9 million and it’s so close to Eternals that the placement could flip once the actuals are released on Monday. The film has pulled in $8 million-plus since opening on Wednesday.

Paul Thomas Anderson and Licorice Pizza continued to light up the specialty box office with a per-theater average of $56,000 from four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. Over Thanksgiving, the movie grossed a pandemic-era best average of $84,000 and continues to do well as it prepares to expand in the coming weeks.

What are YOUR thoughts on this weekend’s box office results?