‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Claims Top Spot at Holiday Weekend Box Office While ‘Strange World’ Falters

Disney claimed the top two spots for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend box office, while a third is in the Top Ten, but it’s not all good news for the company.

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The Top Spot

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” has claimed the top spot at the box office for the holiday weekend that ran Wednesday, November 23 through Sunday, November 27, 2022. This was its third weekend at #1, according to Box Office Mojo.

Domestically, the film claimed $64 million, bringing its U.S. total to $367,670,596 over the three weeks it has been in theaters.

Overseas, it grossed another $32.1 million over the weekend. This brings the film over the $300 million mark internationally, bringing the combined total to $675.6 million world-wide.

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Second Place

Disney Animation’s newest title, “Strange World,” managed to claim second spot on the domestic box office chart in its debut weekend, but even with the 5-day holiday, the film only managed to bring in $18.6 million domestically.

Add in another $9 million from 43 international markets, and the total comes to just $27.6 million. That low total is partially due to the fact that the film was not shown in many Middle Eastern countries, Malaysia, and Indonesia due to a gay character, which would have caused the film to be banned.

Disney Animation titles generally do great business with Thanksgiving weekend releases. “Encanto” earned a 5-day gross of $40.6 million in 2021, and that’s with COVID protocols in place. “Frozen II” in 2019 grossed a record $125 million over the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Strange World” had a production budget of $180 million before marketing costs are factored in, so it’s not likely to recoup any of the budget over its theater run.

A lot of questions as to why “Strange World” didn’t have the normal Disney Animation box office. Are families still not going to the theaters? Was everyone preoccupied with the World Cup? Did the marketing not entice people to go to theaters to see this movie? Was the decision to send the last three animated Pixar films a deterrent to get families back in theaters?

Whatever the answers, the fact is that no amount of armchair quarterbacking will change the box office tallies for the film, which were dismal, especially by Disney standards.

Hopefully this is just one misstep, and Disney Animation’s “Wish” will do better when it hits theaters in Fall 2023. Disney doesn’t need another string of films like the early 2000’s with “Home on the Range” and “Treasure Planet” not getting people into the theaters.

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Surprise Showing

While Disney claimed the top two spots on the domestic box office chart, a third film made a surprise showing at the fifth spot.

Searchlight Pictures’ dark comedic horror film, “The Menu,” has been doing really well at the specialty box office, and in its second week in theater searned $7,344,000 for a two-week total of $18,670,443.

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Did you see any of these movies this holiday weekend? Let us know in the comments.