Moviegoers ain't afraid of no ghosts.
Columbia's "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" scared up $44 million last weekend, exceeding expectations and unseating Disney's "Eternals" atop the domestic box office, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.
"Eternals" generated $10.8 million in its third weekend in domestic cinemas, missing Boxoffice Pro's $11.8 million projection. The film received the worst-ever reviews for a movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Without adjusting for pandemic-related losses or inflation, "Afterlife" notched the second-biggest opening for a "Ghostbusters" movie, just barely trailing the all-female revival, which premiered with $46 million in 2016. "Ghostbusters" (1984) and "Ghostbusters II" (1989) opened at $13.6 million and $29.5 million, respectively.
The spectral comedy also features nostalgic cameos from original ghostbusters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson. Their fourth cast mate, Harold Ramis, died in 2014.
On review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, "Afterlife" scored a middling 62%, while the Los Angeles Times deemed the sequel "listless," "creatively bankrupt" and "unaware of the charm and appeal of its predecessors."
The family flick fared better with moviegoers, landing an impressive 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. An official letter grade from CinemaScore has yet to be posted.
"It's a really solid number," said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore's senior media analyst. "Part of that is the theatrical exclusive release. This shows that this brand is really powerful even some 37 years after the original became a cultural phenomenon."
Warner Bros.' "King Richard," the awards-buzzy drama starring Will Smith as the devoted father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, also debuted last weekend in theaters and on HBO Max. The acclaimed bio-pic racked up $5.7 million, securing fourth place across North American markets.
Hailed by The Los Angeles Times as "rewardingly jagged and uncommonly thoughtful," "King Richard" earned a glowing 92% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and rave reviews for Smith, who has emerged as an early Oscar contender. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the family drama received an A grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
"It really is have and have nots," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. head of domestic distribution. "Clearly the avid moviegoers are starting to come back, but more casual moviegoers are more reluctant."
Although traditional blockbusters have managed to draw decent audiences, dramas have disproportionately struggled during the pandemic. Most have debuted in the $3 million range. One of the more successful debuts was the Aretha Franklin bio-pic "Respect," which opened to $8.8 million.
"King Richard" was sandwiched between two returning titles in the top five: In third place, Paramount's "Clifford the Big Red Dog" fetched $8.1 million in its second weekend for a North American cumulative total of $33.5 million; and in fifth, Warner Bros.' "Dune" amassed $3.1 million in its fifth weekend for a cumulative $98.2 million.
Globally, "Eternals" has garnered $336.1 million, "Dune" has $367.1 million and Columbia Pictures' blockbuster "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" has earned $454.7 million.
Meanwhile, in limited release from A24, Mike Mills' "C'mon C'mon" had the best limited platform debut since February 2020 with $134,447 from five screens. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as man looking after his 9-year-old nephew.
The box office is still far from where it was pre-pandemic. The weekend leading into Thanksgiving usually gets around $200 million in ticket sales, but last weekend came to about $83 million.
At this point, the 2021 North American box office could end up with about $4 billion. In 2019 it was $11.4 billion. And there are still some major movies on the horizon in December, like "West Side Story," "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "The Matrix Resurrections."
"Thanksgiving and the holidays are usually a really good time at the box office. The marketplace every week is a building block in that road to recovery for movie theaters," Dergarabedian said. "These last six weeks are going to be critical. This is a final push."
Opening next in wide release this week are Disney's animated "Encanto," Screen Gems' "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" and United Artists Releasing's "House of Gucci."