Box Office Holiday: Encanto Leads a Sluggish Thanksgiving Weekend, Ghostbusters Rules, Resident Evil Flops

Image courtesy Disney

This weekend proved that the pandemic is far from over and that the effects are still being felt at movie theaters. Whereas the Thanksgiving weekend is typically a huge kickstart for the holiday season, movies seemed to struggle with no massive openings or huge success stories. Still, there was one clear winner and a couple holdovers that seem to be holding the charge against a sluggish recovery at the cinema. 

Disney's latest animated film, Encanto took the number one spot this weekend with roughly $40.3 million over the five day weekend, Wednesday to Sunday. This is nowhere near the 2018 opening of their Coco release which made $70 million in its opening frame. Again, it's great to see Disney remaining on top, but this is further proof that folks are staying home to watch their movies. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife saw another strong weekend and turnout with another $35.3 million over the course of the five day extended weekend. After the disastrous reboot, it looks as though the Ghostbusters will be continuing on with another planned sequel. Sometimes, nostalgia is enough to carry a win. 

Luckily, Ridley Scott's newest drama House of Gucci took the number three slot with $21.8 million over the five day window. With Scott's other recent release The Last Duel proving to be an absolute financial failure for the studio, this is a good sign that the director can still drum up some interest. 

Marvel's Eternals continued to do perform in the number four spot but has altogether not proven to be the mega-success that they had expected. Taking in the number 5 spot was the latest Resident Evil movie which restarts the film franchise.  The movie which had a very limited marketing campaign only made $8.8 million over the Thanksgiving weekend. This is not a good sign for the RE franchise considering the final film starring Milla Jovovich grossed nearly $14 million in its opening weekend. 

-CG