Box Office Week: Doctor Strange is #1 again with $43 mil and Trolls is #2 again with $35 mil. In new releases, Arrival has a very strong premiere at #3 with $24 mil, Almost Christmas scores a solid #4 premiere with $15.5 mil, and Shut In bombs at #7 with $3.7 mil.

Rank	Title	Domestic Gross (Weekend)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Week #
1	Doctor Strange	$43,032,000	$492,614,169	2
2	Trolls	$35,050,000	$222,284,367	2
3	Arrival	$24,000,000	$28,600,000	1
4	Almost Christmas	$15,564,000	$15,564,000	1
5	Hacksaw Ridge	$10,775,000	$38,339,321	2

Notable Box Office Stories:

• While this weekend saw a few smaller scale contenders, Doctor Strange had a lot of room to succeed on its second weekend and the film lived up to the challenge coming in #1 with $43 mil. That represents a pretty impressive 49% drop, the third best second weekend drop for an MCU film (behind Iron Man and Thor). This pushes the domestic haul of Strange to $153 mil and pushes Disney past $2.3 bil domestic, the best ever for the studio. That is pretty impressive considering the studio already has Moana and Rogue One in the wings and last year they delivered The Force Awakens, the best domestic grossing film of all time by $175 mil. Doctor Strange has also already earned $339 mil in foreign markets including $44 mil in China and $30 mil in South Korea. The film will surpass $500 mil by tomorrow, making it the 12th highest grossing film of 2016 in just two weeks. However Doctor Strange's run may be quickly winding down with the upcoming juggernaut Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them about to hit US and foreign shores.

• The weird thing about critics is that sometimes they matter a lot and sometimes they don't matter at all. In the case of Arrival I think it was the incredible critical reviews that pushed the film to outperform expectations (around $15 mil - $18 mil were the predictions) to come in with a quite good $24 mil opening at #3. While this doesn't match the heights of Interstellar or The Martian, this does represent the best opening weekend for director Denis Villeneuve. The big test now for the film will be word of mouth which is where one might have some concern as the film scored a pretty middling B on Cinemascore. This score could mark a frustration with audiences in the lack of action in Arrival or a perceived misrepresentation in the marketing. However films like 10 Cloverfield Lane (B-) have managed to still have good legs despite disappointing Cinemascores, so really it is up to friends and family on this one. Since the film has a fairly positive spin on global politics it might emerge as a good political climate antidote or a potential Oscar candidate with rising potential nominations for Amy Adams and Best Picture. Despite even the worst legs, the opening gives the $47 mil sci-fi film some good cushion that at the very least will justify its creation by the end of everything.

• It seems it's not just Christmas decorations and shopping that can't wait till after Thanksgiving as Almost Christmas premiered a month and a half before the holiday to a solid #4 with $15.5 mil. The film, which features an all black cast, performed to an 81% non-white crowd and a crowd that was 60% over the age of 25. While the loss of a more global audience means the film may have left a couple million on opening, it does mean the film has a built in market which could give it good legs in the future, especially with the A- on Cinemascore. With a budget of $17 mil the film has almost already surpassed its budget even with its soft opening so barring some intense drops the film should at least squeak into profitability by the end.

• In the latest in a run of films like Max Steel and The Disappointments Room, Shut In seems to be another film that wasn't so much released as dumped into theaters. The film wasn't screened for critics but the few that paid up for the film gave it an abysmal 0% on RT and 24/100 on Metacritic. With so little advertising and awful reviews it's no wonder the film premiered at #7 with an awful $3.7 mil. Even with a budget of $10 mil this film will struggle to make a profit.

Films Reddit Wants to Follow

This is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.

Title	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget	Week #
Finding Dory	$486,094,009	$1,024,284,335	$200 mil	22
Ghostbusters (2016)	$128,350,574	$229,147,509	$144 mil	18
Hell or High Water	$26,970,197	$30,708,817	$12 mil	13
Kubo and the Two Strings	$47,808,691	$68,829,829	$60 mil	13
Moonlight	$4,778,462	$4,778,462	$5 mil	4

Notable Film Closings

Title	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget
Suicide Squad	$325,100,054	$745,600,054	$175 mil

As always /r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.

Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at /r/moviesboxoffice.

Submitted November 14, 2016 at 10:48PM by mi-16evil http://ift.tt/2garljE