The Grinch steals thunder from Queen movie

The Grinch, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, and his loyal dog Max play a game of chess in Universal Pictures’ new adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch. The film came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $66 million.
The Grinch, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, and his loyal dog Max play a game of chess in Universal Pictures’ new adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch. The film came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $66 million.

LOS ANGELES -- You're a mean one -- and you're number one -- Mr. Grinch.

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch sledded past mixed reviews and made off with $66 million for Universal Pictures to top the weekend North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Last week's top film, the Queen bio-pic Bohemian Rhapsody, drops to second for 20th Century Fox with a $30.8 million weekend that brings its overall take to $100 million.

Illumination, the Universal-owned animators behind The Minions and Despicable Me, produced the latest interpretation of Seuss' 1957 book that led to a 1966 TV special and first came to the big screen as a live-action feature starring Jim Carrey in 2000.

Paramount Pictures' war-horror hybrid Overlord was third in its first weekend with $10.1 million. Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms brought in $9.5 million and finished fourth in its second week. The weekend's other major debut, The Girl in the Spider's Web, made just $8 million and finished fifth.

Illumination's Grinch, narrated by Pharrell Williams, gives the title character, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, a backstory in an orphanage and fills out the story of his foil Cindy Lou Who.

It's the second Seuss adaptation for Illumination. Its version of The Lorax opened with a comparable $70 million weekend and went on to gross $348.8 million worldwide.

The Grinch was widely expected to be No. 1 with few other major openings last weekend, but it surpassed projections that had it bringing in closer to $60 million, continuing what has become a trend in 2018.

"The Grinch is just the latest in a string of over-performers," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. "Bohemian Rhapsody was bigger than expected, A Star Is Born was bigger than expected. It's fueling a box-office surge."

The industry has reached a cumulative box office total of $10 billion faster than in any other year, Dergarabedian said.

The Christmas theme of The Grinch could sustain it through the holidays and Universal hopes it has a longer life than that.

"With Thanksgiving coming, we're poised to have a great run through that," said Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution for Universal. "Illumination's created such a classic take on this beloved character that audiences will be enjoying it for a really long time."

But big rivals loom soon, including Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald this week and Ralph Breaks The Internet on Nov. 21.

"We've got a lot of competition coming up for family audiences," Dergarabedian said.

The critically drubbed Venom (29 percent "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes) opened in China over the weekend to a massive $102 million -- the second-biggest superhero debut ever in that market and the fifth-biggest opening for an import film, according to Variety.

Columbia's Venom has now grossed $673.5 million worldwide -- already making it the seventh biggest movie of the year, as it hurtles past Disney/Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp ($622.5 million).

Five of the year's eight biggest movies are led by Marvel comic-book characters.

With today's opening of the critically lauded Widows, the box office should soon begin to see more overlap between what audiences and critics praise.

Note: The Top 20, compiled by The Associated Press, will no longer appear.

MovieStyle on 11/16/2018

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