Walt
Disney
‘s animated feature Wish came up short at the holiday weekend box office, dealing the House of Mouse another cinematic blow.
Instead,
Lions Gate Films
‘ (ticker: LGF)The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes led the three-day box office rankings, according to
Comscore,
taking in another $28.8 million domestically in its second week. Next place went to
Sony
‘s (SONY) Napoleon with opening weekend domestic sales of $20.4 million.
Wish was third with $19.5 million in domestic ticket sales, Comscore said. For the five-day weekend, sales were $31.7 million. Both fell short of expectations leading up to the movie’s debut.
Disney (DIS) once ruled the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, so the showing was “disappointing,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s senior media analyst. While it isn’t time to write the movie off — sales could surge in future weeks — Disney’s holiday box office domination is “no longer a fait accompli,” he said.
The good news, Dergarabedian told Barron’s, is that the breadth of the weekend’s offerings and the sales showed Hollywood and the exhibition industry continue their recovery.
Overall, the five-day holiday weekend, starting Wednesday and going through Sunday, saw an estimated $172 million in domestic box office sales, Comscore said. That’s lower than the $315.6 million in sales in 2018, the record. But it’s up from $122.8 million last year.
Right now 2023 domestic box office sales have reached $8.242 billion, edging closer to expectations the industry can reach $9 billion in sales this year, Dergarabedian said. While that would be down from the $11 billion years logged before the pandemic, “it’s a really good sign for the industry,” he said.
At this point of the year, there are about 20 fewer wide release features so far than there were in the corresponding period in 2019, he noted. With the strikes by actors and writers resolved, Hollywood has a shot to get back on track.
For Disney, the weekend showing comes just three weeks after the release of The Marvels, the 33 installment of its Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films. That debut was a disappointment. The Marvels came in sixth for this three-day holiday weekend, according to Comscore.
Comcast
-owned (CMCSA) Universal’s Trolls Band Together was fourth over Thanksgiving weekend, notching $17.5 million in domestic box office sales, while Sony’s Thanksgiving came in fifth, with sales of $7.1 million.
Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com
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