Updated on December 10, 2021
This weekend, the top film at the box office was again “Thor: The Dark World,” which earned $38 million (and $147 million to date). However, Christmas-themed dramedy “The Best Man Holiday” opened in second place. Despite being a sequel to a 15-year-old movie (“The Best Man”), “Holiday” pulled in $31 million, well above what initial estimates were (Box Office Mojo projected $24 million), and almost twice what it cost to produce the film ($17 million).
“USA Today,” meanwhile, ran an article dubiously labeling “The Best Man Holiday” in its headline as a “race themed film,” despite that other than an African-American cast, the film’s plot is about a family get-together at Christmas with wacky/dramatic things happening. If the paper wants a “race themed film,” they might want to look at “12 Years a Slave” instead. “USA Today”‘s quickly changed its headline from “‘Holiday’ nearly beats ‘Thor’ as race-themed films soar” to “‘Holiday’ nearly beats ‘Thor’ as diverse films soar,” which still sounds like an odd adjective, especially since it’s, well, the holiday season…
Meanwhile, “Free Birds,” the only animated film left in the top 10, dropped to fourth place with a box office take of $8.3 million, for a total take so far of $42 million. “Birds” has one more weekend domestically to try to make back its $55 million cost, which seems a long shot; Disney’s “Frozen” opens the following Thanksgiving weekend. The main hope for “Birds” at this point is whatever it’ll make overseas, though its foreign box office is hard to guess (being about a US-centric holiday).
