Box Office Tops $142 Million Over U.S. Thanksgiving Weekend

Over the five-day American Thanksgiving weekend, moviegoers in the U.S. and Canada spent $142 million U.S. on tickets to movies such as “Encanto,” “House of Gucci” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

The box office take is not as strong as previous years, when ticket sales topped $250 million U.S., but it does show that consumer confidence in returning to cinemas is rising.

Topping the box office this past weekend was Disney’s “Encanto,” which tallied an estimated $40.3 million U.S. between Wednesday and Sunday. While this figure is smaller than the recent Thanksgiving releases by Disney, including “Frozen II,” which earned $130 million U.S. during the five-day holiday period, it’s a positive for the movie industry that families are feeling more comfortable returning to theatres.

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Family-friendly films, especially animated films, have largely underperformed during the pandemic as parents kept their unvaccinated kids at home. With vaccination rates on the rise and the recent approval of a vaccine for children aged five to 11, there is hope that the box office will see significant improvements in the coming months.

“House of Gucci,” distributed by MGM and Universal, earned an estimated $21.2 million U.S. domestically during the long weekend. Released a week before Thanksgiving, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” added an estimated $35.2 million U.S. to its domestic tally. The film is expected to near $90 million U.S. in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada for its first two weeks in movie theatres.