Adult-Skewing Titles Saved Thanksgiving Box Office | THR News - video Dailymotion

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For the first time that any box office analyst can remember, the top four holiday films after Walt Disney Animation's tentpole 'Frozen 2' were adult-skewing titles that weren't sequels or based on known IP.

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00:00Hey, Benny, you wanna ask this guy some questions?

00:02Alright, what is this? What's this arrangement?

00:04Mr. Drysdale.

00:06CSI KFC?

00:11Ugh, still getting over that turkey Thanksgiving hangover.

00:14Like a lot of Americans, I ate a lot of great food,

00:17and I sat down and watched a lot of movies.

00:19For the first time that any box office analyst can remember,

00:22the top four holiday films after Walt Disney Animation's

00:25tentpole Frozen 2 were all adult-skewing titles

00:28that weren't sequels or based on known IP.

00:31Knives Out, Ford v Ferrari, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,

00:34and Queen & Slim all overperformed over the holiday weekend.

00:38Total revenue for the weekend clocked in at an estimated $264 million.

00:43While that's down 16% from last year's record $315 million,

00:48it was the sixth best showing in recent memory,

00:51despite boasting no live-action tentpole.

00:54Original films just came back in a big way.

00:57Hollywood needs to seize this momentum and keep dishing out mid-range adult content.

01:02If they stop doing that, they will lose out on all the best talent

01:05that is already gravitating toward streaming, says Jeff Bach of Exhibitor Relations.

01:10For the better part of two decades, Hollywood has generally stuffed the Thanksgiving turkey

01:14with two tentpoles, whether they open the weekend or the Wednesday before the holiday.

01:19The recipe has often been a combination of an all-audience movie from Walt Disney Animation

01:24and installments from The Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, and James Bond franchises.

01:30This year was an anomaly, with Frozen 2 serving as the lone studio tentpole on the Thanksgiving buffet,

01:36fueling worries that an already terrible November would end on a low note.

01:40Frozen 2 led with a record-shattering $123.7 million for the Wednesday-Sunday stretch,

01:46easily besting the $109.9 million grossed by The Hunger Games catching fire during the same time in 2013.

01:53The return of Princess Anna and Queen Elsa were followed by a robust $41.7 million for Rian Johnson's Knives Out.

02:00The star-studded Whodunit flick had been tracking to open at $20 to $25 million,

02:05is among the most successful original Thanksgiving title in years.

02:09Placing third after Knives Out was James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari with $19 million for the five-day frame,

02:16Mariel Heller's Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood with $17.3 million,

02:20and Melina Matsoukas's Queen & Slim with a $15.8 million debut.

02:25I can't remember when original films were so prominent in the top five,

02:29says Wall Street analyst Eric Handler of MKM Partners.

02:32Timing helps. Right now is a good point on the calendar to put out an original film,

02:37as franchises are not widespread at the moment.

02:40Secondly, reviews for Knives Out, Queen & Slim, Ford v Ferrari, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

02:45are all very good, and they had smart release dates.

02:49It's impossible to guess as to what Netflix's high-profile mob pick The Irishman,

02:54which came out on the streaming platform November 27th, might have grossed had it opened on thousands of screens nationwide,

03:00but clearly it didn't stop moviegoers from getting off their couches to go feast on all these original offerings.

03:06As for me, I saw Frozen 2, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and The Irishman all over the weekend,

03:12so I feel I did my part. To get all the latest on movies and more, head to THR.com.

03:17For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Paul Costabile.

Adult-Skewing Titles Saved Thanksgiving Box Office | THR News

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