Beyonce was a one-woman show this weekend. The concert picture she wrote, directed and produced won the weekend box office with $21 million in North American ticket sales, according to estimates from AMC Theatres on Sunday. The post-Thanksgiving, early December box office is notoriously slow, but Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce, bucked the trend. Not accounting for inflation, it's the first time a film has opened over $20 million on this weekend in 20 years—since The Last Samurai. Beyonce's film is focused on the tour for her Grammy-winning album. It debuted in 2,539 theaters in the US and Canada, as well as 94 international territories, where it earned $6.4 million from 2,621 theaters, the AP reports.
The weekend was slow overall, despite new releases including Godzilla Minus One, the Hindi-language Animal, Angel Studios' sci-fi thriller The Shift, and Lionsgate's John Woo-directed revenge pic Silent Night. Films in the Top 10 are expected to gross only $85 million in total. Though Renaissance did not come close to matching the $92.8 million debut of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in October, it's still off to a good start for a concert film. No one expected Renaissance to match The Eras Tour, which is wrapping up its theatrical run soon with over $250 million globally. Beyonce's 39-city, 56-show tour, made over $500 million and attracted over 2.7 million concertgoers. Swift's ongoing "Eras Tour," with 151 dates, is expected to gross some $1.4 billion.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce, $21 million.
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, $14.5 million.
- Godzilla Minus One, $11 million.
- Trolls Band Together, $7.6 million.
- Wish, $7.4 million.
- Napoleon, $7.1 million.
- Animal, $6.1 million.
- The Shift, $4.4 million.
- Silent Night, $3 million.
- Thanksgiving, $2.6 million.
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