Movie audiences were crazy in love with Beyoncé's new concert film, giving it the top spot at this weekend's box office.
"Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé" opened to $21 million in the United States and $6.4 million internationally for a worldwide take of $27.4 million so far. Those are very respectable first weekend numbers but, for comparison, they amount to not even a quarter of what "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" made in its first weekend back in October.
AMC Theaters acted as the studio behind both Swift's and Beyoncé's films.
In second place, "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" nabbed another $14.5 million. That marks a drop of roughly 50% from last weekend.
So far, after an underwhelming opening weekend where the odds definitely did not seem in its favor, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" has legged out to more than $121 million domestically and nearly $123 million elsewhere for global earnings of nearly $244 million.
This new "Hunger Games" cost around $100 million to make, and you can likely double that with money spent on publicity and advertising, meaning the film has likely turned a small profit. Not bad considering most box office analysts were quick to write it off after its first three days in theaters.
Tromping and smashing its way into third place was the international release "Godzilla Minus One," which earned just a hair over $11 million.
This is the 30th Japanese "Godzilla" movie, and it has been receiving some of the best reviews of the franchise since the original, dating all the way back to 1954.
"Godzilla Minus One" has made about $23 million internationally so far, for a worldwide gross of just over $34 million.
In fourth, the musical animated romp "Trolls: Band Together" lost about 57% of its gross from last weekend, taking in $7.6 million for a domestic total to date of nearly $75 million. Overseas it has added $86 million for a global gross of nearly $161 million.
Closing out the top five after tumbling more than 62% from its disappointing first weekend, Disney's "Wish" added another $7.4 million to its stateside haul, which now sits at almost $42 million. Internationally the film has made nearly $40 million for a worldwide tally of over $81 million.
Those are dire numbers for a movie that cost a reported $200 million before marketing, and it is another in a string of let downs or outright failures for Disney in 2023.
The house of mouse has so far seen "Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," "Elemental," "The Little Mermaid" and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" greatly underperform, while "The Marvels" was an outright flop and now "Wish" seems destined to a similar fate.
Here are the top ten movies at the weekend box office:
1. "Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé" ($21 million)
2. "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" ($14.5 million)
3. "Godzilla Minus One" ($11 million)
4. "Trolls: Band Together" ($7.6 million)
5. "Wish" (7.4 million)
6. "Napoleon" ($7.1 million)
7. "Animal" ($6.1 million)
8. "The Shift" ($4.4 million)
9. "Silent Night" ($3 million)
10. "Thanksgiving" ($2.6 million)
