Thanksgiving Day Yields Surprisingly Strong Box Office Returns

Thanksgiving Day Yields Surprisingly Strong Box Office Returns

While box offices are usually weaker than normal on Thanksgiving due to people being at home with their families, most films did better than expected this time around with The Croods: A New Age in the number 1 slot.

The Croods: A New Age had a 46% jump in revenue between its premiere date and Thanksgiving day, going from $1.9 to $2.7 million for a domestic total of $4.6 million. Compare this with the performance of Frozen 2, which saw a corresponding 38% drop in its box office and Wreck-It Ralph 2, which saw a 45% drop 2019 and 2018. However despite the Thanksgiving uptick, this week’s box offices still pale in comparison to those of Frozen 2 and Wreck-It Ralph 2 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Croods relative strength may be due to Universal Pictures‘ $27 million ad buy, because it marks the second best premiere on record since theaters reopened after Disney‘s The New Mutants $3.1 haul in August. Tenet’s opening day box office is unknown, as Warner Brothers never disclosed that information to the public, though it is widely believed to have been very weak.

Most of this week’s movies saw revenue go up between Wednesday and Thanksgiving with Robert De Niro‘s The War With Grandpa from 101 Studios up 57% at $190,000. In third place was Freaky from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse up 8% at $175K. In fourth was Let Him Go from Focus Features up %62 at $148K, and in fifth place was Liam Neeson‘s Honest Thief from Open Road up 88% at $75K. The top 20 movies yesterday only grossed about $4 million, while 53 tracked films during the Thanksgiving of 2019 made $35.3 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

The Croods: A New Age was also released in China on Thanksgiving with a debut run of $3 million (RMB 20 million). Universal says that it was the third-biggest Hollywood debut in China in 2020, just behind Tenet and Mulan. The film’s Friday performance is currently on the same pace in China as the original 2013 film, which was released on a Saturday. Croods 2 was bolstered by significant advance ticket sales and strong ratings on Maoyan and Taopiaopiao at 9.1. The movie is tied for first place with two Chinese titles, Caught in Time and One Second.

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