Box Office: ‘The Croods 2’ Leads Sluggish Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend

Refresh for latest...: The international box office continues to provide welcome surprises during the pandemic era. Where movie theaters are open and people feel safe, they turn up for new or enduringly exciting product that’s on offer.

With its theatrical window deal signed by AMC and Cinemark, Universal and Focus Features have continued to lead the struggling pandemic box office as “The Croods: A New Age” earned its third straight No. 1 weekend and the studio’s seventh straight weekend atop the charts with $3 million from 2,115 screens.Overseas, the film added $6.6 million in China and $8.4 across all overseas markets, including openings in Mexico and Ecuador.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterUniversal’s animated adventure “The Croods: A New Age” led another quiet weekend at the domestic box office.

The Croods: A New Age is continuing to dominate at the box office.

It was a drama-filled weekend at the Chinese multiplex. Tencent's big-budget video game adaptation Monster Hunter was yanked from cinemas one day into its release over a scene local audiences decried as derogatory.

Refresh for latest…: Sunday’s international box office reporting looks vastly different to what was expected coming into the weekend. A Friday gross that portended a high-teens launch for Monster Hunter in China was quickly thwarted when local authorities pulled the feature game adaptation from the country’s cinemas.

supply chain problems are already surfacing — AMC Theaters has already voiced its objections to the studio’s plans and promised to defend its interests in ongoing talks.“Croods: A New Age” will soon join the ranks of early streaming releases, as the deal made between Universal and several major theater chains will allow them to release the film on PVOD after next weekend.

The Croods: A New Age is continuing to dominate at the box office.

Dave McNary Film ReporterUniversal and DreamWorks’ “The Croods: A New Age” repeated as winner of a mild post-Thanksgiving weekend with $4.4 million at 2,205 North American locations.The animated comedy sequel, featuring a voice cast of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds, has been dominating the seriously subdued moviegoing business since its Nov. 25 launch with $20.3 million in its first dozen days.

Universal's The Croods: A New Age was the decisive winner of a competitive three-way race at China's box office over the weekend, topping both holdover local hit Caught in Time and the latest release from venerated Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou. Croods 2 opened in China to a healthy $19.2 million, which was $5 million more than its five-day holiday start in North America.

Despite the most challenged Thanksgiving box office in modern times, The Croods: A New Age managed to come in ahead of projections with a five-day holiday debut of $14.2 million, including $9.7 million for the weekend. Overseas, the family film launched in seven markets to $20.8 million — led by $19.2 million in China — for a global bow of $35 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe box office outlook in South Korea, which last year was the world’s fourth largest theatrical market, turned from bad to worse.

The Croods: A New Age earned $3.9 million on Black Friday for a better-than-expected five-day debut of $14 million-plus in North America if projections hold. That includes a three-day weekend tally of $9.7 million, as strong as Tenet.

As states and cities start new stay-at-home orders — specifically Los Angeles county — it is only expected that box office will continue to struggle. This applies even more to the specialty box office.

The Croods: A New Age is on top at movie theaters.

Refresh for latest…: DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Croods: A New Age led the weekend in China with a $19.2M debut, outpacing local titles One Second and Caught In Time. This is the third best bow for a studio movie in the Middle Kingdom during the pandemic era (behind Tenet and Mulan).

The Croods: A New Age earned $2.7 million on Thanksgiving Day for a two-day total of $4.6 million as the domestic box office endures its worst holiday in modern history amid the COVID-19 crisis. Still, the film's performance is better than expected so far.