Box Office Round-Up ~ 12/6/23

The final month of 2023 opened, unsurprisingly, with Beyoncé leading an eclectic field of new and returning releases. Her documentary Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, distributed through AMC like Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour earlier this year, opened with $21.8 million, making it the best post-Thanksgiving opening weekend in over twenty years. It will likely hold the top spot this coming weekend, with no major releases scheduled (unless you count the theatrical re-releases of holiday mainstays Die Hard and Love Actually… and neither one of those should be dismissed completely).

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes took second place in its third weekend, clearing $100 million overall with a weekend gross of $14.1 million. In third place, Godzilla himself stomped into theaters with the U.S. debut of Godzilla Minus One, the latest in Toho Studios’ almost 70-year kaiju franchise. It grossed a total of $11.4 million, making it the best U.S. opening weekend for any Japanese Godzilla movie. And with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire coming next spring, it’s a good time to be the King of the Monsters.

Much like last weekend, two animated titles rounded out the top five, but swapping places this time. Trolls Band Together reached $75 million overall with $7.8 million over the weekend. Disney’s Wish unfortunately failed to rebound from its disappointing opening weekend, dropping over 60% to gross just $7.7 million, dimming the likelihood of the box office resurgence the studio saw with Elemental earlier this year.

1.  Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé ($21.8 MM)
Director: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (UTA), Ed Burke
Writers: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (UTA)
Cast: Beyoncé (UTA)
        Diana Ross (CAA)
        Kendrick Lamar (UTA) 

2.  The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes ($14.1 MM)
Director: Francis Lawrence (CAA)
Writers: Michael Lesslie (CAA), Michael Arndt (Verve)
Cast: Tom Blyth (Gersh)
        Rachel Zegler (CAA)
        Hunter Schafer (CAA) 

3. Godzilla Minus One ($11.4 MM)
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Writers: Takashi Yamazaki
Cast: Minami Hamabe
         Ryunosuke Kamiki
         Sakura Ando 

4.  Trolls Band Together ($7.8 MM)
Director: Walt Dohrn (UTA), Tim Heitz (UTA)
Writer: Elizabeth Tippet (Artists First), Kim Caramele, Lloyd Taylor (Verve)
Cast: Anna Kendrick (CAA)
         Justin Timberlake (WME)
         Kenan Thompson (UTA)

5.  Wish ($7.7 MM)
Director: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Writers: Jennifer Lee (Paradigm), Allison Moore (Verve), Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Cast: Ariana DeBose (CAA)
         Chris Pine (CAA)
         Alan Tudyk (Gersh) 

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers