The Biggest Post-Thanksgiving Drops Ever At The Box Office

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As a seasoned movie critic who has weathered countless box office trends and fads over the years, I can confidently say that the post-Thanksgiving weekend is notorious for being a graveyard for movies. The steep drop-off in attendance after families flock to theaters during the holiday weekend is as predictable as pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving weekend is typically an ideal moment for premiering a film, as people seek entertainment when their families are visiting or they have time off work. However, the period following Thanksgiving weekend can pose a challenge, as movies tend to see a significant decrease in viewership during these three days. Even popular and long-running films like “Frozen” can experience a 53% drop during this post-Thanksgiving weekend frame. This is because everyone tends to flock to the cinema over Thanksgiving weekend, but then gets sidetracked with other holiday activities afterwards.

Normally, films experience a significant drop in their box office earnings during the weekend following Thanksgiving, typically falling between 50-63%. However, some unfortunate exceptions manage to exceed these expectations for poor performance. Remarkably, several movies have shown historic declines in ticket sales over this specific post-Thanksgiving weekend, having already struggled with disappointing box office earnings the previous week. Ahead, we’ll examine the films that suffered the most dramatic weekend-to-weekend drops ever following the Thanksgiving holiday.

Charlie’s Angels Fell Off a Cliff After Thanksgiving

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Historically, the steepest drop following Thanksgiving in box office earnings is held by the controversial 2019 reboot of “Charlie’s Angels”. This movie fell by a massive 83% after its initial three-day Thanksgiving showing, earning only $1.25 million. The subsequent weekend saw it earn just $215,247. This significant decline can be partly attributed to the reboot losing 2,453 screens in its fourth week. Reducing from 3,156 locations to merely 703 was bound to lead to a dramatic decrease. Despite the poor box office performance before December 2019, the film didn’t seem to have much support or momentum even before Thanksgiving weekend.

The only other film released widely, so far, that dropped by more than 80% following Thanksgiving was “Free Birds,” a 2013 animated movie about families, now mostly remembered for sparking the “going back in time to the first Thanksgiving to remove turkeys from the menu” meme. It’s not shocking that audiences stopped watching Free Birds once December arrived since it’s a movie centered around Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving over, there was no longer a reason for viewers to keep an interest in this film. Moreover, “Frozen” was still dominating the family movie market after its Thanksgiving 2013 premiere, leaving little room for other films, even one that inspired a future internet meme, to compete.

Among the drops I’ve recently admired, none has captivated me quite like “The Chosen Season 3: Episode 1 & 2,” a unique Fathom Events production from 2022 that graced the cinematic landscape two weeks prior to the post-Thanksgiving rush. Intriguingly, the films occupying the fourth through eighth positions on this list (“Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” “Brother Bear,” and “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour”) all made their debut either early in November or late in October. It seems that the significant dip these titles have experienced post-Thanksgiving is not so much a reflection of waning audience interest, but rather these projects running the natural course of their popularity.

After being closed for months, moviegoers and cinemas were eagerly anticipating fresh content. This expectation worked perfectly for movies like “Freddy’s ” and “The Eras Tour“, which had already made history as box office hits well before Thanksgiving arrived. On the other hand, a film like “Back in Action“, struggling during the post-Thanksgiving weekend, served yet another reminder of its inability to turn a profit.

What November Blockbusters Collapsed Over This Timeframe?

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Most of the significant movie drops following Thanksgiving, with a few exceptions like Freddy’s and The Eras Tour, were already experiencing poor box office performance before this steep decline occurred. The film that holds the 11th spot post-Thanksgiving is an attempt to break box office records: The Matrix Revolutions. Its 71% drop following Thanksgiving solidified that this movie would not reach the same level of success as its two predecessors. Just behind it in the rankings is The Cat in the Hat, which dropped a staggering 70% in its third weekend. This significant decrease indicates the strong negative impact of word-of-mouth for one of the worst-reviewed movies of 2003.

So far, just 12 wide releases have experienced a drop of 70% or more during the post-Thanksgiving weekend period. But there are other significant drops to report for some major November blockbusters. For example, “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” fell by 64%, much like “Quantum of Solace”. Even a classic Christmas film such as “Elf” dropped by 63% during its first weekend in December 2003. Interestingly, two films from Walt Disney Animation Studios have also seen drops of 60% or more over this period – namely, “The Good Dinosaur” and “Wish”.

The raindrops served as unfortunate precursors to the titles failing to maintain their presence in the marketplace for a prolonged period, unlike other Disney Animation blockbusters for Thanksgiving such as Moana and Tangled, which ran until New Year’s. Even the “Mouse House” (Disney) is aware of these significant decreases in box office revenue following Thanksgiving. The impact of audience word-of-mouth or a movie’s broader cultural significance seldom changes this trend, except for rare cases like Lady Bird, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Dune. It’s as predictable as turkey being carved on Thanksgiving!

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2024-12-15 04:10