Even as Frozen 2 expectedly dominated the box office in its extended five-day Thanksgiving weekend run, Knives Out was still able to carve out a lane for itself to the tune of $70 million worldwide.
The whodunit murder-mystery film was expected to make between $22 and $25 million domestically, and surpassed those projections from Friday to Sunday alone, where the Rian Johnson-written and directed vehicle took home $27 million. The flick earned $41 million domestically in its extended debut weekend.
The opening weekend box office performance of Knives Out not only exceeds the film’s $40 million budget, but it shows that there is still an audience that is willing to spend their hard-earned money on an original film that isn’t tied to an already existing franchise or cinematic universe.
Johnson, who was coming off the box office success of The Last Jedi, managed to secure a sizable financial backing from a studio despite Hollywood’s general apprehension to heavily invest in a film idea that isn’t the same proven cash cow as the Marvels and Star Wars' of the world. Regardless of how Knives Out does from here on out, Johnson has shown that he's worth the risk.
Going back to Frozen 2, the movie earned $85.2 million over the weekend, in addition to a record-setting $123.7 million over Thanksgiving break, surpassing 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which made $109 million in that same span. The film also gives Disney a record $3.2 billion in domestic ticket sales this year.
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