Surprisingly debuting strong in the second spot was long-awaited comedy sequel The Best Man Holiday, which largely outdid expectations. 14 years after the original Best Man earned $34 million altogether, Holiday opened to nearly that with $30.1 million, and only played in 2,024 locations (its' per-venue average was a fantastic $14,875). This is truly an opening no one expected, as the first movie isn't very well-known and analysts' projections averaged out around $20 million. But, the sequel was well-marketed, opened at a solid time, and had very little competition to deal with. As a result, this movie broke out and became the 5th R-rated comedy this year to open above $20 million. Reviews were solid and audiences gave it a rare "A+" CinemaScore. Combine that with the Christmas holiday still over a month away and there's a very good chance Best Man Holiday finds itself above $100 million by the time its' done. Distributor Universal, who hit a record year gross this week, didn't release an official projection. Best Man Holiday showed similar tracking to that of Think Like a Man, which debuted to $33 million back close to two years ago, and took in a similar African-American demographic.Despite added competition, Last Vegas showed off some serious muscle this weekend, jumping back up to third place. The ensemble comedy was off a light 24% to $8.4 million, for a solid $46.5 million gross in 17 days, and is set to pass The Woman in Black as CBS Films' biggest-grossing film to date. Free Birds also had a strong hold, off 27% to $8.1 million, for a decent $42 million pick-up in the same amount of time. The Thanksgiving comedy will have one more weekend before it will have to retreat in the face of the highly-anticipated Disney movie, Frozen.
Even with another R-rated comedy in the marketplace, Bad Grandpa continued to slowly descend, off just 35% to $7.4 million, and a $90 million gross in 24 days. The spin-off will only be the second in the Jack*** franchise to pass the century mark. Gravity stayed in the sixth spot, and continued playing well with just a 29% dip to $6.1 million, and a huge $240.4 million pick-up in 49 days of release. Meanwhile, Ender's Game continued to disappoint, despite holding better this weekend. The YA adaptation was off 41% to $6 million, and a $53.6 million gross in 17 days. Ender will likely get hit hard by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire next weekend.
Critically-acclaimed films rounded out the Top 10. 12 Years a Slave expanded to 1,400 locations, but dropped 31% to $4.6 million, for a very solid $24.9 million pick-up in one month of release. Captain Phillips continued to hold strong, off a Top 10-best 23% to $4.4 million, for a $97.5 million gross in 37 days, and will hit $100 million next weekend. About Time was off a fairly light 30% to $3.3 million, but has picked up a relatively stale $11.4 million in 17 days. However, the film has earned an additional $40 million overseas, saving it from disappointment.
Overseas, Thor: The Dark World led with $52.5 million from 92% of the international marketplace, and has earned close to $340 million overseas so far, which ranks third among Marvel movies behind Iron Man 3 and The Avengers. Thor already ranks 10th for the year worldwide with $485 million so far. Gravity added $18.5 million from 62 markets, and has passed $500 million worldwide, ranking 8th for the year so far. The Counselor added $10.8 million from a handful of overseas markets, for a stale $35 million worldwide gross. Captain Phillips added $8.4 million from 62 markets for a $160 million gross worldwide. Rounding out the Top 5 was The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which debuted to a strong $6.3 million in Brazil, over twice the amount of the first movie. The massively-anticipated sequel will debut on Friday in the U.S., and stands a good chance at challenging Iron Man 3 for the year's biggest opening.
