‘Grinch’ Steals, ‘Spider’s Web’ Bombs & ‘Venom’ Breaks China Box Office Records

Children’s movies are critic-proof, that much is obvious. And showing just how much kids don’t care about what the critical reaction is to an animated film, “The Grinch” easily dominated it’s debut weekend, with a massive showing at the box office.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s remake of the classic Christmas tale, “The Grinch,” pulled in an estimated $66 million this weekend to debut atop the box office. This type of debut is only mildly surprising when you consider the Rotten Tomatoes average for the film currently sits at 55%. As mentioned, animated films are almost always critic-proof and combined with “The Grinch” being a known intellectual property from one of the biggest authors, the film was destined for a big opening.

READ MORE: ‘The Grinch’: Hear Tyler The Creator And Danny Elfman’s Version Of ‘You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch’

Compared to the other Dr. Seuss films over the last 20-ish years, “The Grinch’s” opening is the second-best, behind only 2012’s “The Lorax” ($70 million). Granted, it’s difficult to compare the opening of the most-recent animated ‘Grinch’ against the 2000 Jim Carrey-led live-action film, which earned a great $55 million in its opening weekend ($260 million domestic total overall). Either way, this is a strong opening, and looks to be a major player in the coming weeks with a respectable ‘A-‘ CinemaScore.

The good news ends there for this week’s debut films. This weekend saw the opening of not one, but two action films that were highly-anticipated by fans. First, coming in at #3, is “Overlord.” The J.J. Abrams-produced “Not A Cloverfield” film opened with a dismal $10 million. Even with a strong critical response (81% on RT), “Overlord” just couldn’t find a way to connect with audiences. The WWII-meets-grindhouse film earned a not-great ‘B’ CinemaScore which leads us to believe this latest Bad Robot film is going to struggle in the coming weeks at the box office. Thankfully, the film only carries a $38 million reported budget, so it’s not too much of a loss.

READ MORE: ‘Overlord’ Is A Fun, Sometimes Silly Mash-Up Of Classic War Film And Gonzo Grindhouse Flick [Review]

Even though “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” only has a reported $43 million budget and debuted at#5 with a similar opening to “Overlord,” the latest Lisbeth Salander film has a grimmer outlook. Earning an estimated $8 million in its opening weekend ‘Spider’s Web,’ which sees Claire Foy take over for Rooney Mara as the aforementioned hacker-sleuth, looks to be a pretty devastating blow for Sony. Even though 2011’s “The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo” opened with a similar total in its first three-day weekend, the David Fincher film debuted during the Christmas holiday season and stuck around for weeks in the top 10, ending up with a $102.5 million domestic total.

Keep in mind, ‘Dragon Tattoo’ was based on the most famous book in the series, featured star Daniel Craig, and was directed by David Fincher. ‘Spider’s Web’ is directed by a relative unknown (to non-film fans) Fede Álvarez, starring relatively unknown Foy (sorry, but “The Crown” is far from a global sensation), and based on the only book in the ‘Dragon Tattoo’ series not written by author Steig Larsson. Compounded by the mixed critical reception, ‘Spider’s Web’ just wasn’t able to find its audience this weekend. And those that paid their money to watch the film this weekend were lukewarm, giving it a ‘B’ CinemaScore.

READ MORE: ‘The Girl In The Spider’s Web’: Claire Foy’s Lisbeth Salander Is Your New Bond In This Gripping Thriller [Review]

Unless “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” is able to recoup its money overseas, it appears that Sony’s attempt to relaunch the ‘Dragon Tattoo’ series with a new star, director, and tone is officially dead.

Now back to the good news. Last week’s massive opening for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was proven to be no fluke, as the Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic only saw a -39.6% drop in its second frame, for a great $31 million. That gives the film a ten-day domestic total of $100 million. Not too shabby considering all the behind-the-scenes drama and mixed critical reception. As of this writing, the film has earned a worldwide estimated total of $285 million. If Rami Malek needed another reason to be atop the Best Actor awards discussion, the massive box office success of ‘Rhapsody’ sure isn’t hurting.

As for the two films we’ve been keeping an eye on over the last couple weeks, “A Star is Born” and “Venom,” it’s more of the same, which means these films are still motoring along in their sixth weekends. “A Star is Born” earned another $8 million (only losing to ‘Spider’s Web’ by an estimated $5,000), pulling its domestic total to $178 million. We can expect a $200 million total in the next few weeks.

“Venom,” on the other hand, only earned another $4.85 million, but combined with its massive China opening of $111 million (2nd best for a superhero film in the Middle Kingdom all-time), the Sony blockbuster now sits at $674 million worldwide. With that domestic total, as we explained earlier this week, “Venom” is on pace to pass Andrew Garfield’s solo ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ films in the next couple of weeks. Then, the Tom Hardy film will have $800 million in its sights, which would give Sony all the confidence it needs moving forward with the ‘Spider-Man’ spin-off universe.

READ MORE: Massive Opening Day In China Means ‘Venom’ Could Earn More Worldwide Than Most Of Sony’s ‘Spider-Man’ Films

Taking a look at the limited releases, the weekend saw the debut of Hugh Jackman’s “The Front Runner.” After debuting on Election Day (timely, sure, but a stupid idea nonetheless) with incredibly low totals, the Gary Hart scandal film only earned $56,000 over the weekend from 4 theaters, for a $14,000 per theater average. For a film with one of the biggest stars in the world, directed by Jason Reitman (a critical favorite), and clear Oscar ambitions, this low opening has to be concerning. We’ll have to keep an eye on “The Front Runner” as it begins its nationwide expansion.

Still in limited release, but showing strong legs as it expands is “Boy Erased.” The Joel Edgerton-directed film starring Lucas Hedges (also with strong Oscar ambitions) expanded to 77 theaters and earned a respectable $9,416 per theater average.

READ MORE: ‘The Front Runner’: Hugh Jackman & An Impressive Ensemble Navigate Scandal [Telluride Review]

And we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria.” After the year’s biggest per theater average, the horror film has completely lost steam (and its theater count). Expanding to over 300 locations last weekend didn’t pay off, and this weekend wasn’t any better. Now, in only 261 theaters, “Suspiria” earned only $326,250, good for a miserable $1,250 average. The film has only earned a domestic total of just under $2 million, and it appears that the Dario Argento remake is destined to be a disappointment. It’s a shame, as the film is incredible (I’ll fight you to the death on this one).

Next weekend is going to see the crowded box office get much, much more crowded as the Wizarding World takes over. “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is ready to make its debut in over 4,000 locations, and is sure to be the #1 film next weekend. The only question is by how much. Debuting in over 3,000 screens each is Mark Wahlberg’s “Instant Family” comedy and Steve McQueen’s awards hopeful “Widows.” Also, of note is “Green Book,” which begins its limited release and is sure to be another crowd-pleasing fall film.

Here’s the entire top 10 for November 9 to 11:

1. The Grinch — $66M (Debut)
2. Bohemian Rhapsody — $31M ($100M Overall)
3. Overlord — $10M (Debut)
4. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms — $9.6M ($35M)
5. The Girl in the Spider’s Web — $8.015M (Debut)
6. A Star is Born — $8.01M ($178M)
7. Nobody’s Fool — $6.5M ($24M)
8. Venom — $4.9M ($206M)
9. Halloween — $3.8M ($157M)
10. The Hate U Give — $2M ($26.7M)