The Croods: A New Age remains on top of weekend box office

The Croods sequel stays in first!

Without any real competition in theaters, the sequel THE CROODS: A NEW AGE easily held its spot on top of the box office with an estimated $4.4 million for a second weekend.

The PG-rated Dreamworks movie with the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds slipped by 55% from last weekend, lurching to a 12-day domestic total of $20.3 million and $60.5 million worldwide (on a cost of $65 million). Not too bad, all things considered.

The weekend after Thanksgiving is typically one of the slowest periods of the year under the best of circumstances, which the world is quite obviously not currently experiencing. The animated adventure was the only movie in theaters to crack seven figures this weekend.

Universal continues to be the only studio regularly releasing new inventory into theaters during the ongoing pandemic, with this weekend's top four movies coming from the company (or its subsidiary Focus Features). In second place was their Mexican import HALF BROTHERS, debuting with $720,000 over its first weekend.

In third place was the R-rated Vince Vaughn/Kathryn Newton horror movie FREAKY with $460,000 on its fourth weekend. The $6 million Blumhouse production has a domestic total of $7.7 million as it also became available on VOD this past week.

In fourth place was the new PG-13 drama ALL MY LIFE with an opening of $350,000 on 970 screens.

Based on a true story, the romance with Jessica Rothe (HAPPY DEATH DAY) and Harry Shum, Jr. (CRAZY RICH ASIANS) didn't quite win the hearts of critics with a 58% average on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 37.

The PG-rated Robert De Niro comedy THE WAR WITH GRANDPA was in fifth place on its ninth weekend for a domestic total of $17.6 million. The reissue of the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy ELF followed in sixth place, with the list filled out with recent chart regulars like the R-rated Kevin Costner/Diane Lane drama LET HIM GO, the supernatural horror movie COME PLAY  and the Liam Neeson crime-drama HONEST THIEF.

Showing up at the party in tenth place was the classic R-rated action movie DIE HARD, earning $189,000 from its reappearance on 1170 screens.

The R-rated Bruce Willis thriller from director John McTiernan has collected a domestic total of $83.7 million (unadjusted) since it first started the "Is DIE HARD a Christmas movie?" argument back in 1988.

Even with the optimism that comes with news of an impending vaccine for COVID-19, it seems like the box office is going to stay relatively barren even heading deep into next year. Although videogame adaptation MONSTER HUNTER and Tom Hanks Western NEWS OF THE WORLD are still expected on Christmas, Warner Bros. dropped a bombshell this week with the news that their entire 2021 slate (including DUNE and THE MATRIX 4) will adopt the same plan as WONDER WOMAN 1984 with a simultaneous release in theaters and streaming on their HBO Max platform.

While it may be unlikely that other studios will consider a similar kind of drastic business decision, we can probably expect the entire release schedule to be in a constant state of flux for many months to come.

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