Excellent debuts for Disney’s Big Hero 6 and Paramount/Warner’s Interstellar helped the North American box office rebound considerably from last weekend’s dismal Halloween frame. Nothing else came even close. The box office jumped a huge 165% over last weekend’s totals but lagged eight percent behind the top ten from one year ago when Thor: The Dark World arrived with $85.7 million.
Disney continues to mine gold from its acquisition of comic book giant Marvel. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy were megahits for the Mouse House earlier this year and now the animated Big Hero 6 looks to become their third smash hit for 2014. Hero 6 rode a wave of strong reviews and heavy advertising to arrive on 3,761 screens Friday to earn an estimated $56.2 million. 29% of the film’s gross came from 3D screens. Based loosely on a lesser-known Marvel Comics property, Hero 6 features the voice talents of TJ Miller, Alan Tudyk, Maya Rudolph and James Cromwell.
Big Hero 6’s debut marks the third November in a row that a Disney Animation feature has opened with huge numbers. 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph scored $49 million in its first three days and of course, last year’s Frozen began its global conquest during Thanksgiving week with $69 million. While Hero 6 opened in second place on Friday behind Interstellar, it surged past the Nolan epic on Saturday when families turned out in force for matinees.
The impressive $15.8 million earned by Hero 6 on Friday is a strong indicator that the movie has piqued the interest of adults in addition to children. If word of mouth is positive on the $165 million feature, that feedback could translate into strong midweek business. With no competition on the horizon for the next three weeks Big Hero 6 should be able to soar to or near the $200 million domestic mark.
While families fueled Big Hero 6, adults and devout fans of director Christopher Nolan were powering his latest sci-fi epic Interstellar with an estimated $50 million from 3,561 screens. Factoring in the grosses from the 249 35mm and 70mm IMAX venues that opened the film on Election Day, its overall domestic total stands at $52.1 million. IMAX venues played a big factor in Interstellar’s debut. A whopping 26% -or $13.4 million- of its domestic haul came from the large-format venues.
Foreign markets added $80 million to the Interstellar’s global total, which currently stands at $132 million.
The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine in a tale of a group of astronauts traveling to another galaxy in the hopes of finding a new home for the human race. Overall, reviews were good but not great for Interstellar, with many citing the film’s 169-minute running time and script as the main issues with the film. While Nolan’s legion of fans will undoubtedly love and defend the British director’s latest feature with great zeal, other ticket buyers appear not to be so gung ho about the $165 million effort: they gave the feature a “B+” CinemaScore rating. Next weekend’s totals will determine if viewer feedback will deliver another hit for Nolan or his lowest-grossing film since 2006’s The Prestige.
The remainder of the top ten consisted of holdovers, none of which managed to break the $10 million mark. Fox’s Gone Girl continued to bring in the bucks in its sixth week of release on 2,224 screens. Off 28% from last weekend the David Fincher blockbuster landed in third place to earn an estimated $6.1 million to bring its overall domestic haul to $145.4 million. The film is on course to finish near the $160 million mark.
In fourth place was the Universal Pictures micro-budgeted thriller Ouija with an estimated $6 million from 2,680 theaters. Off 44%, a small amount given that Halloween has come and gone, Ouija has summoned $43.4 million after three weeks and is headed to a final haul around $55 million. Rounding out the top five was the Bill Murray/Melissa McCarthy comedy St. Vincent with an estimated $5.7 million from 2,455 screens. The new total for the Weinstein Company feature stands at $27 million.
The remainder of the top ten is as follows:
- Nightcrawler (Open Road Films) $5.51 million (-47%); $19.7 million
- Fury (2014) (Sony) $5.5 million (-38%); $69 million
- John Wick (Lionsgate) $4 million (-49%); $34.7 million
- Alexander…Very Bad Day (Disney) $3.4 million (-47%); $59.2 million
- The Book of Life (2014) (Fox) $2.4 million (-65%); $45.2 million
Next weekend heralds the return of Harry and Lloyd in the Farrelly Brothers’ Dumb and Dumber To. Will the belated return of the loveable knuckleheads have what it takes to displace Big Hero 6 or Interstellar?
