Box Office: Disney’s Strange World Bombing

 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued to dominate the Thanksgiving box office. Faced with only token opposition, the superhero sequel raised $10 million on Wednesday. The Marvel and Disney release is on track to gross around $63 million over the five days, slightly beating the competition.

Another Disney movie, “Strange World,” is bombed, grossing a disappointing $4.2 million on Wednesday as it calls for a five-day purchase of less than $24 million. That’s a terrible result for the $180 million animated adventure. For comparison, “Encanto,” another recent Disney animation offering, earned $40.3 million over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2021 — and that was seen as a poor showing for the family film. “Encanto” didn’t really hit the zeitgeist until it was streamed on Disney+, when “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became ubiquitous.

Among other newcomers, Sony and Black Label Media’s Devotion, an inspirational drama about two elite US Navy fighter pilots, grossed $1.8 million. A five-day haul of $10.2 million is expected.

MGM and United Artists Releasing’s “Bones and All” stumbles in its expansion and grossed about $900,000 as of Wednesday. The offbeat tale of young cannibals in love is on track to gross $4.3 million in five days. It opened last weekend in a limited edition.

And Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans grossed $400,000 on Wednesday after expanding from four theaters to more than 600 venues. The semi-autobiographical look at the filmmaker’s early years would gross $3 million over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Searchlight’s “The Menu” earned $1.1 million and was expected to gross $8 million over the holiday season. The domestic gross of the horror comedy is $12.4 million. Warner Bros. and DC’s “Black Adam” earned $660,000 as of Wednesday and is expected to gross $4 million on vacation. The domestic total of the superhero film is almost 160 million US dollars.

It’s a pretty bleak picture for the film business, which has been in a lull since mid-summer and still grappling with the aftershocks of the COVID lockdowns. The holiday box office appears to be down about 10% from last Thanksgiving, when ticket sales peaked at $142 million. That was a far cry from the pre-pandemic Thanksgiving results. For example, in 2019, the Turkey Day frame grossed $263.3 million. The exhibition business had reason to celebrate after it was revealed that Amazon plans to spend $1 billion to produce 12 to 15 films that will hit theaters. The internet giant has alternated between embracing cinemas and focusing on powering its streaming service. The recent shift in strategy is a boon for exhibitors as the announcement has taken a toll on their inventories.

Theater operators could get silent support from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the follow-up to Rian Johnson’s 2019 hit Whodunit. However, Netflix is ​​not reporting any earnings for the film, which is showing in 600 North American theaters.