LOS ANGELES -- Disney's Ralph Breaks the Internet presided over another slow box office weekend that saw no new wide releases and very little impact from the recently announced Golden Globes nominations.
Ralph Breaks the Internet added $16.1 million in its third weekend for a cumulative $140.9 million, according to figures from measurement firm Comscore.
In second place, Universal's The Grinch earned an additional $15.2 million in its fifth weekend for a cumulative $223.5 million.
MGM's Creed II maintained the No. 3 spot, adding $10.3 million in its third weekend for a cumulative $96.5 million.
At No. 4, the Warner Bros. film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald added $6.8 million in its fourth weekend for a cumulative $145.2 million.
Rounding out the top five, Fox's Bohemian Rhapsody, which received a best picture nod from the Globes, earned $6 million in its sixth weekend in theaters for a cumulative $173.6 million.
This weekend's box office should be more exciting, early figures indicate. The pre-release Globes nominations of films such as Mary Poppins Returns (out Dec. 19) and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (out today) suggest that these and other potential blockbusters will be the big titles of the Christmas season.
Internationally, last weekend's biggest new arrival was in China, where Warner Bros.' Aquaman debuted with $93.6 million in ticket sales. That marked a new opening-weekend record for Warner Bros. and DC in China. Considering the checkered recent history of DC films (Justice League, Suicide Squad), the big launch in China was a promising sign for the spinoff starring Jason Momoa.
"Adding to the success of Wonder Woman, this is a really solid performance and portends big numbers for North America in two weeks when it opens," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. "This is a movie, along with Mary Poppins Returns and Bumblebee and other movies, that's going to give December that boost that a Star Wars movie would give us."
Aquaman will expand to 40 international countries this week and arrive in North American theaters Dec. 21.
Aquaman wasn't the only big-budget holiday season release receiving a lift this week. Paramount's Transformers prequel Bumblebee played a one-night sneak preview in 326 theaters nationwide ahead of its Dec. 21 release.
Paramount declined to share ticket figures but domestic distribution chief Kyle Davies said theaters were mostly sold out. Perhaps more importantly, the film directed by Travis Knight and starring Hailee Steinfeld aided its word of mouth with largely glowing reviews -- a rarity for the Transformers franchise.
Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, due out Dec. 19, also helped its cause with four Golden Globe nominations Dec. 6, including best picture, comedy or musical, and acting nods for Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The feel-good interracial road trip period tale Green Book fared even better at the Globes (five nominations, including best picture, comedy or musical, and acting nods for Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen) and had good results at the box office to show for it. In its fourth week of release, Green Book held with a rare 0 percent drop, earning $3.9 million in 1,181 theaters. It has grossed $20 million in total.
Yorgos Lanthimos' comic period drama The Favourite continued to pick up steam. The acclaimed Fox Searchlight release, starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, expanded into 91 theaters over the weekend to gross $1.4 million ($15,000 per theater).
A more traditional royal drama, Mary Queen of Scots, also opened strongly in limited release, with $200,000 in four theaters. The Focus Features title, starring Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I, debuted with a robust $50,045 per-theater average. Lis Bunnell, president of distribution for Focus, said "the film's modern spin made it resonate with audiences in a powerful way paralleling so much of what is still going on today for women."
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, Universal re-released the Holocaust epic in 1,029 theaters. But it failed to turn out large crowds, grossing a modest $551,000.
In limited release, Roadside Attractions' Ben Is Back earned $80,972 on four screens, a per-screen average of $20,243. The film earned an 84 percent fresh rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes and will expand to about 30 additional locations next weekend.
Neon's Vox Lux opened in six locations with $162,252, a per-screen average of $27,042. It earned a 66 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
This week, Universal releases the action adventure Mortal Engines, Warner Bros. unveils the crime drama The Mule and Sony/Columbia Pictures open the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In limited release, Annapurna Pictures premieres Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk.
MovieStyle on 12/14/2018