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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 13 noveMber 2017

‘Thor’ tops ‘Daddy’s Home 2,’ ‘Orient Express’ at box office

By LINDSEY BAHR The studio expects the film
AP Film Writer to play well through the
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Thanksgiving holiday, ap-
God of Thunder isn’t ready pealing to audiences who
to relinquish his box office are not rushing out to see
throne yet. the latest comic book ad-
Studios estimated Sunday venture. Next week, DC
that “Thor: Ragnarok” add- and Warner Bros.’ super-
ed $56.6 million from North hero ensemble pic “Justice
American theaters in its League” opens.
second weekend, bringing “I don’t think our audienc-
its domestic total to $211.6 es will overlap a lot,” Aron-
million. son added.
The film, from Disney and “A Bad Moms Christmas”
Marvel and directed by took fourth with $11.5 mil-
Taika Waititi, out-grossed lion in its second weekend,
each of its two predeces- and “Jigsaw” rounded out
sors domestically in just two the top five with $3.4 mil-
weeks, not accounting for lion.
inflation. In smaller releases, Greta
It easily beat out the come- Gerwig’s buzzy coming-of-
dy sequel “Daddy’s Home age film “Lady Bird,” from
2” and the lavish Agatha distributor A24, also broke
Christie adaptation “Mur- into the top 10 in its expan-
der on the Orient Express,” sion to 37 theaters, earning This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Johnny Depp in a scene from, “Murder on
the Orient Express.”
even as both posted solid $1.2 million. Associated Press
openings. Another awards contend-
Paramount scored again er, “Three Billboards Out-
with “Daddy’s Home 2,” side Ebbing, Missouri,” star-
which adds John Lithgow ring Frances McDormand,
and Mel Gibson to the Will opened to a strong limited
Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg release with $320,000 from
formula. The film, which just four theaters.
cost a reported $69 million Still, the overall box office
to produce, took second continues to lag, down 5
place at the box office with percent for the year.
$30 million. The first film from “We’re still down from the
2015 grossed $242.8 million same weekend a year ago
worldwide on a similar bud- about 7 percent.
get. Despite ‘Thor’ and these
Critics were not won over newcomers, a lot of these
by the comedy, but audi- films aren’t creating a lot
ences seemed pleased, of excitement,” said com-
giving the film an A- on Cin- Score senior media analyst
emaScore. Paul Dergarabedian.
The star-studded “Murder “It’s going to take this
on the Orient Express,” combination of ‘Justice
meanwhile, screeched into League’ and ‘The Last
third place with an estimat- Jedi’ and everything in be-
ed $28.2 million against a tween to try to dig us out of
$55 million budget. this deficit.”q
Kenneth Branagh directs
himself in the film, which
also stars Michelle Pfeiffer,
Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley
and Judi Dench.
Audiences were mostly
female (56 percent), and
Caucasian (65 percent),
but somewhat evenly split
in terms of age (51 percent
were over 35).
“It gives me an incredible
injection of optimism for the
future of our business. This is
sumptuous, throwback Hol-
lywood filmmaking, and
audiences responded to
it,” said Chris Aronson, pres-
ident of domestic distribu-
tion for Twentieth Century
Fox.