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"Encanto", "House of Gucci" and "Licorice Pizza" have all created pandemic era records for their respective genres, but the overall box office recovery is still slow.
Although watching movies in the long corridors of Thanksgiving Day in 2021 is not close to the pre-pandemic level, Hollywood has won a lot of home movies and adult dramas.
Walt Disney Animation's original music adventure Encanto topped the domestic charts with a $40.3 million premiere from Wednesday to Sunday at the box office. This is the best start for an animated film in the pandemic era. This includes $27 million for the three-day weekend. Overseas, Encanto has an opening price of US$29.3 million in more than 47 markets and a global issue price of US$69.6 million.
Disney always releases an animated film during Thanksgiving, although usually the number is much larger. The last original film released during the holiday, Pixar's "Cocoa", had a domestic box office revenue of US$72.9 million in five days in 2017. In the franchise installment payment, "Frozen II" has a five-day box office revenue of more than 125 million U.S. dollars in 2019.
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Although the opening of Encanto met expectations, many people in Hollywood hope it can do more. There are concerns about the speed of the overall box office recovery, especially after the new omicron COVID-19 variant, which may scare domestic audiences after it has already prompted the closure of some cinemas in parts of Europe.
Encanto features Lin-Manuel Miranda's original songs and tells the story of a Colombian girl who had to save her extended family by magic, even though she did not have a special gift of her own. Directed by Byron Howard, Jared Bush and Charles Castro Smith, and the voice actors include Stephanie Beatritz, Maria Cecilia Potro, Wilmer Valderrama, Adassa, Diane Guerrero, Mauro Castillo, Angie Cepeda, Jessica Darrow, Rhenzy Feliz, Carolina Gaitan, Ravi Cabot -Conyers and John Regizamo.
Driven by Latinos and North America’s A CinemaScore, Encanto is the first animation studio work to receive an exclusive theater window since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis in the spring of 2020 (until recently, children under the age of 11 could not be vaccinated) .
MGM and United Artists' House of Gucci are another Thanksgiving winner.
Gucci, directed by Ridley Scott, premiered for five consecutive days with a weekend box office of US$21.8 million and US$14.2 million, both of which set record numbers for adult dramas during the pandemic , It also reflects the attractiveness of the star Lady Gaga to young people. Nearly half (45%) of ticket buyers are between 18 and 34 years old, while 34% are 45 years and older.
Gucci ranked third after Encanto and maintained the Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Overseas, the show was billed for US$12.9 million from 40 markets, and the global opening was US$34.7 million.
"This is undoubtedly an improvement," said Erik Lomis, director of distribution at United Artists. "Original stories are still important. I think this is a big deal."
Lomis refers to Gucci and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, MGM and the co-artist opened with exclusive 70mm screenings in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The movie’s average box office per theater was $84,000, which is the best average since the pandemic began.
As a participant in the awards competition, Gucci House will play Lady Gaga as the wife of fashion successor Maurizio Gucci, played by Adam Driver. Al Pacino and Jared Leto also starred in this murderous revenge story. It got a B+ CinemaScore from the audience (one reason may be its 158-minute runtime).
A new product that performed poorly was the relaunch of Sony and Screen Gems. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. It premiered in China for five days with a box office of $8.8 million, ranking fifth. The director of the action horror film is Johannes Roberts and stars Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Carmen, Robbie Amel, Tom Hopper, Awan Giorgia, Donna Logger and Neil MacDonald. Overseas, the photo opened in 15 markets for US$5.1 million, and the world’s first release was US$13.9 million.
Sony’s family-friendly Ghostbusters in Jason Reitman: The Afterlife’s performance is much better, with an estimated gross domestic box office of US$87.8 million for the 10-day end of Sunday, and a global box office of US$115.8 million.
"Afterlife" earned US$35.3 million in domestic box office revenue during the five-day Thanksgiving Day—not far from Encanto—of which weekend box office revenue was US$24.5 million.
Warner Bros. 'King Richard fell to seventh place at the end of Sunday with a domestic income of approximately US$11 million in the second weekend. This adult drama and Oscar-winning star Will Smith plays Venus and Serena Williams' father Richard Williams. King Richard can also be watched on HBO Max.
It is also difficult for King Richard to earn points internationally. So far, its global revenue is $16.6 million and revenue is $5.2 million.
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