‘Frozen’ ices weekend competition

Undeterred by the weekend’s frigid temperatures and, in many areas, first major snowstorm of the year, audiences showed they were all about that ice by lining up for Disney’s Frozen. The animated hit grossed $31.6 million, enough to bypass The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (which took in $27 million) for the weekend’s top slot. Frozen dropped just 53% to earn the best post-Thanksgiving haul ever. Previous record-holder, Toy Story 2, took in $27.8 million in 1999, while three years ago, Frozen’s Mouse-House sister Tangled grossed $21.6 million over this same weekend. In total, Disney’s latest success story will likely earn around $250 million domestically.

Frozen’s worthy competitor Catching Fire continues to do spectacular business, on track to leave with upwards of $400 million by the time its theatrical run has come to an end, although many pundits were surprised by the film’s steep downturn this weekend. The Hunger Games sequel dipped 64%, which is worse than both of the last two Twilight movies.  No need to cry for Katniss, though: The action flick has, so far, earned a total of $336.7 million domestically, with another few weeks of solid earning potential ahead of it.

The same can’t be said of the weekend’s No. 3 slot and only new major release. While no one was particularly surprised Out of the Furnace failed to prove itself a hit, the extent of its failure was greater than expected. With a dismal $5.3 million bow, the revenge thriller is an unqualified bomb. Those who had compared it to last year’s Killing Them Softly, which earned $6.8 million and was also a disappointment, were expecting Furnace to fare a little better and gross about $10 million or so. Audiences, however, may have felt there was enough bleakness to be viewed outside their windows, and decided to opt for something lighter.

Something like Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which inched past the $100 million mark to become the 6th R-rated comedy to reach the milestone this year. The Coen Bros. Inside Llewyn Davis also did banner specialty business, debuting to $401,000 from just four locations, two in New York and two in LA. Its per-theatre average of $100,250 is the 18th best ever, or 8th best for a live-action film. The movie will next expand on the 20th, although its wide release isn't slated until some time in January. 

Girl power propels Thanksgiving box office

Thanks to popular heroine Katniss Everdeen and a pair of sparring sisters, this year’s Thanksgiving weekend was the most lucrative on record. Hunger Games: Catching Fire continued to feed viewers’ appetite for action fare, love triangles, and watching Jennifer Lawrence drive both, earning an incredible $110 million over the five-day (Wednesday-Sunday) spread. Flying past Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which took in $82.4 million over the same period in 2001, Catching Fire is now the most successful film to have ever screened over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Frozen, Catching Fire’s worthy challenger, set a record of its own these past several days. The Disney princess movie had the highest Thanksgiving opening of all time. It earned $93 million over Wednesday-Sunday night. Toy Story 2 previously held the record for most successful Thanksgiving debut, having opened to $80.1 million in 1999. Very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Snow Queen (they both involve siblings and chilly Nordic weather), Frozen is now the top earner for Disney Animation Studios, way ahead of Tangled and that title’s 2010 Thanksgiving haul of $68.7 million.

It was mostly due to the efforts of the aforementioned, female-driven offerings that the holiday box office tallied out at $294 million, an uptick of 3 percent from last year’s $291 million. No other films came close to the weekend’s top two earners. In third place, Thor: The Dark World continued to do steady, if no longer stellar, business, drumming up $11 million in sales, a drop of 22 percent from last weekend. The Best Man Holiday took in $8.5 million, boosting its overall cume, after two-and-a-half weeks in theatres, to $63.4 million.

And then there are the rest of those films that had hoped to score big with a Turkey Day debut. None of them managed to lure audiences away from their tables and subsequent leftovers – or rather, from Catching Fire and Frozen. Homefront earned $9.8 million over the five-day period; Black Nativity, which was expected to lead the charge of smaller new releases, earned just $5 million; and Oldboy bombed with $1.25 million.

The Book Thief did fine business, clocking in at $4.85 million, though it’s unclear how successful the Nazi-era family film will continue to be in the weeks ahead. Philomena, which opened in 835 theatres, earned $4.6 million, with high expectations for further steady sales.

'Zombieland' to take over theatres

By Sarah Sluis

Zombieland (3,036 theatres) is the top pick for #1 this weekend, since its blanket release puts it in nearly twice as many theatres as the other wide releases. The horror comedy "has its tongue planted

firmly in its rancid cheek while still delivering the visceral

goodies," and its twist on the horror genre should attract die-hard and sometimes horror fans alike.

The other three wide releases of the week are each opening in around 1,700 theatres, smaller-scale releases that match each of the movie's strategies.

Roller derby tale Whip It, which is already benefiting from positive word-of-mouth, will open in 1,720 theatres after sneaking in half that number last week. Women seem to love the movie, and opening smaller will put emphasis on its subsequent weekends rather than its opening weekend. Those that love the film (myself included) are struck by how it breathes life into the familiar coming-of-age genre. Critic Peter Brunette called it "familiar yet simultaneously different...loaded with clichs...but somehow writer Shauna Cross...manages to continually inflect the story with fresh twists."

Prepping for the release of Toy Story 3 in June, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will be released as a 3D double feature in 1,745 theatres. The run is planned for two weeks, but will be extended based on performance. Industry insiders are pegging the film's opening in the $10 million range, but a re-release like this is so rare I wouldn't be surprised if normal tracking measures fail. The movie's biggest competitor is 3D animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which is going into its third week. The re-release will undoubtedly bump Cloudy from some of its 3D venues, which could affect both of the films' standing.

Ricky Gervais-Jennifer Garner comedy The Invention of Lying is also opening small (1,707 theatres), but perhaps that's indicative of its quality: low. Critic Rex Roberts called it a "self-indulgent, ultimately unsatisfying skit-that-won't-quit." Ouch.

On the specialty circuit, Capitalism: A Love Story expands to 962 theatres, its first wide expansion. LeBron James documentary More Than a Game, a "superb, slam-dunk documentary " that follows a quartet of talented basketball players, including James, through high school and beyond will also open in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland.

The Coen Brothers' A Serious Man, sure to appeal fans of the writer/director/producers, opens in New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis this weekend. Our critic Ethan Alter praised the "subtle, humorous way the film tackles such complex subjects as morality, faith and family," calling this personal, "darkly comic" film one of the Coens' best.

On Monday, we'll circle back to see how many viewers Zombieland infected, if audience members took the bait for The Invention of Lying, and how well word-of-mouth was built up for Whip It.