1. Moana (review)- $55.5M/$81.1M
Disney continues its domination of the Thanksgiving weekend with Moana taking the top spot with $81.1M. That's over the course of the five-day holiday, with $55.5M on the general Friday-Sun timeframe. Of the 10 biggest Thanksgiving debut weekends Disney has a lock on 9 of them, which goes to show why they rarely face any stiff competition and certainly didn't this year. The reviews have been universally strong for the South Pacific adventure about an island princess and her demigod pal, the latter voiced by Dwayne Johnson. He may have another franchise under his belt because you know Disney isn't going to let this be a one-and-done. How high the film goes is obviously still adrift at sea, but there aren't a ton of family friendly movies on the way.
2. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them- $45.1M/$156.2M
3. Doctor Strange- $13.3M/$205M
4. Allied (review)- $13M/$18M
Not even the star power of Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard could sustain Allied, the WWII spy drama from director Robert Zemeckis. The film earned $18M over the five days, which is a great distance away from its $85M budget. There weren't a ton of glowing reviews to be found, either, so expecting it to gain some last-second Oscar buzz is unlikely. But in general this was a bad weekend for anything skewing a bit older.
5. Arrival- $1l.2M/$62.3M
6. Trolls- $10.3M/$135.1M
7. Almost Christmas- $7.6M/$36.6M
8. Bad Santa 2 (review)- $6.1M/$9M
Many consider 2003's Bad Santa a holiday classic; me included. And for a couple of years there were legit calls for a sequel. But 13 years later nobody was still waiting for it, clearly, because Bad Santa 2 opened with only $9M over the full five-day holiday weekend. Most of the principles are back including Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, and a stupefying cameo by Octavia Spencer (who has a legit Oscar film in Hidden Figures on the way), all indulging in the same R-rated humor that worked so well before. To be honest, I actually dug it a lot more than our reviewer and will definitely seek it out on home release. Its prospects to hang around through the holidays are slim, though, because Office Christmas Party will likely sweep up anyone looking for some raunchy yuletide fun.
9. Hacksaw Ridge- $5.4M/$52.2M
10. The Edge of Seventeen- $2.9M/$10.2M
Not even cracking the top 10 was Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply (review), which scored $2.1M in 2300 theaters. Ouch. I mean, they had to see this coming, right? Beatty is a legend but he hasn't been anywhere in two decades, much of that time spent trying to make this movie, an unconventional take on Howard Hughes.Now if he had cast Leonardo DiCaprio as the reclusive entrepeneuer like in 2000's The Aviator, maybe things would have worked out differently.
