Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom led a crowd of new releases at the box office over the weekend. The DC and Warner Bros. superhero sequel starring Jason Momoa earned an estimated $28.1 million in its first three days of release in 3,706 locations in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. By Monday it is projected to have around $40 million in domestic ticket sales. Despite many new offerings—including the family-friendly animated film Migration, the R-rated romantic comedy Anyone But You, the wrestling tragedy The Iron Claw, and a ghostly tearjerker in All of Us Strangers—this will go down as a quieter pre-holiday frame at the box office. Moviegoing audiences perhaps had priorities other than going to the cinema.
It is never great for Hollywood or theaters when Christmas Eve falls on a prime weekend day, but the last time Christmas was on a Monday, in 2017, Star Wars: The Last Jedi dominated the four-day charts with $71.5 million from its second weekend. On Christmas Day, which often brings big crowds back to the theaters, more films will open, including the big-budget musical adaptation of The Color Purple, Michael Mann's racing film Ferrari, and George Clooney's adaptation of the rowing drama The Boys in the Boat. All should get a boost between Christmas and New Years, too, a usually lucrative time for movie theaters.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Tuesday.
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, $28.1 million.
- Wonka, $17.7 million.
- Migration, $12.3 million.
- Anyone But You, $6.2 million.
- Salaar: Part 1-Ceasefire, $5.5 million.
- The Iron Claw, $5.1 million.
- The Hunger Games: The Ballard of Songbirds & Snakes, $3.2 million
- The Boy and the Heron, $3.2 million.
- Godzilla Minus One, $2.7 million.
- Dunki, $2.7 million.
(More
box office stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
