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New movies open on Christmas as “Aquaman” sequel tops holiday weekend box office
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ” led a crowd of new releases at the box office on the weekend before Christmas Monday. 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 family tragedy “The Iron Claw” and a ghostly tearjerker in “All of Us Strangers ” — this will go down as a quieter pre-holiday tally at the box office.
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, they’ll be joined by several highly anticipated new films.
Those include the big budget musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” starring Fantasia Barrino Taylor, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo and Corey Hawkins. Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia in the 1985 film adaptation of the novel by Alice Walker, is serving as a producer.
In an interview with CBS News’ “Sunday Morning,” Henson described the message of the film: “As long as you got a beat in your heart, there’s time to make your wildest dreams come true.”
“It just reminds me of how powerful we are as women when we stick together. And that just doesn’t mean that we’re comin’ after you, men!” Henson laughed. “If we stick together, you’re taken care of. Relax! You know, men get nervous. The women and girls are stickin’ together! You will benefit, trust me.”
Also arriving on Christmas is Michael Mann’s racing film “Ferrari,” starring Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz and Shailene Woodley; and George Clooney‘s adaptation of the rowing drama “The Boys in the Boat,” based on the best-selling book by Daniel James Brown that recounted the underdog journey of the American oarsmen at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
All should get a boost between Christmas and New Years, a traditionally lucrative time for movie theaters.
But none will compare some of the biggest holiday earners, like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Avatar” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” It was not lost on social media that this was the weekend that Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars movie “Rogue Squadron” was supposed to come out.
“Seven openers in the course of four days is unusual,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is estimated to have cost around $200 million to produce, not including marketing and promotion costs. Including international estimates at $80 million through Monday, “Aquaman” is heading toward a $120 million global debut.
Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Warner Bros.
The first film opened to $67.8 million in 2018 and went on to make almost $1.2 billion globally. Dergarabedian noted that the first film also earned more than 70% of its box office internationally.
The “Aquaman” opening ends a tricky, transitional year for DC superhero films, full of box office disappointments including “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “The Flash” and “Blue Beetle,” as the studio phases out this slate to welcome in James Gunn’s vision for the future. “Aquaman 2” was the final “holdover” of the previous administration.
Its studio, Warner Bros. also has the No. 2 movie of the weekend, “Wonka ” and one of the major Christmas openings, “The Color Purple,” a buffet of big movies that was sorely needed by theaters — especially without no new movie from the Walt Disney Company or Paramount. By Monday, Warner Bros. will likely have three spots in the top five.
“Warners has something for everybody” said Jeff Goldstein, the studio’s head of domestic distribution. “With lots of holiday time to see all three.”
“Wonka,” in its second weekend, earned an estimated $17.7 million over the weekend and $26.1 million including Monday, bringing its total domestic earnings to $83.6 million.
Third place went to Illumination and Universal’s “Migration,” a PG-rated animated adventure about a family of mallards traveling south. Voice actors include Kumail Najiani, Elizabeth Banks and Awkwafina. It earned an estimated $12.3 million from 3,761 locations in North America through Sunday, which will likely increase to $17.1 million by the end of Monday. Its global total through Sunday is sitting at an estimated $34.3 million, and it could soar with kids out of school.
Illumination Entertainment & Universal Pictures via AP
“‘Migration’ flew into theaters with really, really exciting audience reactions pointing to what we think won’t just be a fantastic run throughout the holidays but also into the next year,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution.
Aside from Disney’s re-releases of some of its Pixar titles early in the year, there will be no new direct competition until “Kung Fu Panda 4” comes out on March 8.
Weekend box office earnings dropped off significantly further down the list, with the romantic comedy “Anyone But You” in fourth place with an estimated $6.2 million from its first three days, expected to reach $9 million including Monday. Directed by Will Gluck, the movie, loosely inspired by “Much Ado About Nothing,” divided critics sharply. Audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore.
In fifth place was the Telugu-language action film “Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire,” which made $5.5 million from only 802 theaters. The top 10 included another Indian film, the Hindi-language “Dunki,” and two Japanese films, “Godzilla Minus One” and “The Boy and the Heron.”
A24’s “The Iron Claw,” about the tragedy-stricken Von Erich wrestling family, opened on 2,774 screens riding a wave of good reviews praising Zac Efron’s lead performance.
“No matter where the box office ends up on the 31st, whether it hits $9 billion or is just close, this is just a boom time to be a moviegoer,” Dergarabedian said. “The top 10 reads like a greatest hits of every type of cinema.”
Below is a list of estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures including Christmas Day will be released Tuesday.
1. “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” $28.1 million.
2. “Wonka,” $17.7 million.
3. “Migration,” $12.3 million.
4. “Anyone But You,” $6.2 million.
5. “Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire,” $5.5 million.
6. “The Iron Claw,” $5.1 million.
7. “The Hunger Games: The Ballard of Songbirds & Snakes,” $3.2 million
8. “The Boy and the Heron,” $3.2 million.
9. “Godzilla Minus One,” $2.7 million.
10. “Dunki,” $2.7 million.
CBS News
Sen. Bob Menendez “put his power up for sale,” prosecutors say in closing arguments of bribery trial
A prosecutor accused Sen. Bob Menendez in a closing argument at his bribery trial Monday of putting his power up for sale to benefit three New Jersey businessmen who allegedly bribed him with gold and cash.
The presentation by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni, which will continue Tuesday, prompted the New Jersey Democrat to scoff as he left the courthouse, saying: “The government is intoxicated with their own rhetoric.”
Minutes earlier, Monteleoni urged the Manhattan federal court jury to follow a trail of hundreds of emails and text messages between the businessmen, Menendez and his wife to see the alleged link between the businessmen and stacks of cash, gold and a Mercedez-Benz convertible that investigators found in the couple’s home in June 2022.
He said they’ll also be able to match fingerprint evidence linking the businessmen and Menendez to the bribes, including fingerprints on the tape that bound thousands of dollars in cash hidden in coat pockets, boots and boxes inside the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home owned by his wife, Nadine Menendez.
Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Monteleoni said the senator “put his power up for sale.”
The prosecutor said it wasn’t enough that the senator was one of the most powerful people in Washington as the ranking member and later the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he could block or approve hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to nations such as Egypt.
“He also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife,” Monteleoni said.
Monteleoni’s closing as the trial enters its ninth week in Manhattan federal court was about half finished when court concluded for the day.
As he left the courthouse, Menendez mocked the prosecutor’s closing, saying the government had “spent two hours on charts, not witnesses that came before the jury.” He added that Monteleoni had spent “two hours telling jurors about what they believe conversations should be that they never heard.”
Monteleoni said there was a clear pattern of corruption and told jurors to closely review communications between the senator, his wife and the businessmen to see evidence of bribes along with proof that they were trying to cover up their schemes.
Monteleoni said defense claims that gold in the house had mostly been inherited by Nadine Menendez was belied by serial numbers on gold bars which showed they had come from the businessmen who paid bribes.
“All this talk about Nadine having family gold is a distraction,” he said.
In return for bribes, prosecutors say, the senator took actions from 2018 to 2022 to protect or enhance the business interests of the businessmen — including pressuring a U.S. Department of Agriculture official to protect a halal certification monopoly Egypt granted to a New Jersey businessman, Wael Hana, and attempting to influence a federal prosecution of another New Jersey businessman, Fred Daibes.
Michael M Santiago / Getty Images
Menendez, Hana and Daibes have pleaded not guilty and are on trial together. A third New Jersey businessman, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty in the case and testified against the others during the federal trial, the second the senator has faced in the last decade. None of the defendants testified.
An earlier trial against Menendez in New Jersey ended in 2017 with a deadlocked jury. After the charges were lodged last fall, Menendez was forced to give up his powerful chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Nadine Menendez is also charged in the case, but her trial has been postponed until August while she recovers from breast cancer surgery. She also has pleaded not guilty.
As part of his defense, Menendez’s lawyers have argued that tens of thousands of dollars in cash found in the senator’s boots and jackets resulted from his habit of storing cash at home after hearing from his family how they escaped Cuba in 1951 with only the cash they had hidden in a grandfather clock.
His lawyers have also asserted that Nadine Menendez, who began dating the senator in 2018 and married him two years later, kept him in the dark about her financial troubles and assistance she requested from the businessmen.
Menendez has held public office continuously since 1986, serving as a state legislator before serving 14 years as a U.S. congressman. In 2006, then-Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he became governor.
Several weeks ago, Menendez filed to run for reelection this year as an independent.
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