Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance’ Kicks Off December Box Office With $21 Million Opening

Phase 2 of AMC Theaters’ concert film experiment kicked off this week with Beyonce’s “Renaissance,” which has earned a respectable $21 million opening weekend from 2,359 theaters. That’s the highest opening on a post-Thanksgiving weekend in 20 years.

Alongside Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” which was also distributed by AMC in partnership with indie distributor Variance Entertainment, “Renaissance” has made 2023 the first year in which two concert films opened to No. 1 on the charts.

“Renaissance” was never expected to reach the concert film record-shattering $92.8 million opening of “Eras Tour,” but now stands among the top 5 highest concert film openings before inflation adjustment. Beyonce’s fans were predictably enthused by the film, giving it an A+ on CinemaScore, and AMC is hoping that more fans who might not have come out to see “Renaissance” yet will turn out as the holidays approach.

Also opening this weekend is Toho’s “Godzilla Minus One,” the latest installment in the longest running franchise in movie history. Distributed by Emick Media in the U.S., the kaiju movie is earning $11 million from 2,308 theaters. That’s an impressive result for a subtitled Japanese film with almost no marketing, adding to the $23 million the film has already grossed in Japan.

“Godzilla Minus One” is instead relying on online word-of-mouth driven by its critical and audience acclaim, with fans of Godzilla hailing the new installment, set in post-World War II Japan, as a return to the series’ roots established in 1954. The movie boasts a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes along with an A from hardcore fans on CinemaScore.

On the flip side, another icon of Asian cinema isn’t doing so well. Lionsgate’s “Silent Night,” the first Hollywood film from action legend John Woo, has opened to a muted $3 million from 1,870 theaters. Critics deemed the film not one of Woo’s best with a so-so 62% Rotten Tomatoes score, while audiences are less impressed, with a C on CinemaScore.

But Lionsgate is still finding success with “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which added $14.5 million in its third weekend to take the No. 2 spot on the charts. The film now ranks among the top 20 films of the year with a $121 million domestic haul.

Completing the top 5 are two competing family animated films: Universal/DreamWorks’ “Trolls Band Together” and Disney’s “Wish.” “Trolls 3” gets the edge with $7.6 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $74.8 million.

“Wish,” meanwhile, has fallen 63% from its Friday-Sunday opening weekend after Thanksgiving with $7.3 million, bringing its two-weekend total to just $41.8 million. Disney’s 100th anniversary film is flaming out fast in theaters, and isn’t showing the audience traction it will need to survive against upcoming competition like Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” and Illumination’s “Migration.”

Finally, Angel Studios returned to theaters with “The Shift,” a modern-day sci-fi retelling of the biblical story of Job. The film opened eighth on the charts with $4.3 million from 2,450 theaters.

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