Atop the Wave: 'Moana' Stays at #1

In its last weekend with little competition, Moana was victorious.

Narrowly edging out newcomer comedy Office Christmas Party, Moana grossed a great $18 million, down a strong 34%. A little less than Tangled's drop during that frame, and much less than Frozen's, Moana could still make 4x the three-day and cross $220 million domestically. I have a feeling Moana will hold on well against Rogue One and Sing, but will it hit two-five-oh domestically?

We shall see.

Worldwide, now that it's out in a couple more territories, it's at $240 million.

Trolls lingers in the top ten, more than a month after its debut. With a small 35% drop, it took in $3 million for the weekend, and it's now at $145 million here. Worldwide, it has made $317 million. More than 2 1/2x the $125 million budget. Let's hope it goes even higher from here, because if it falls short of what DreamWorks/Uni want, I fear it could lead to even more layoffs. We don't need that, and it's why I don't want The Boss Baby and Captain Underpants to go belly-up.

Storks still plays in over 200 theaters, but it's pretty much running on a low amount of fuel. $72 million looks to be the final total here, and $177 million everywhere. The only market it's relatively new to is South Korea, but I doubt they propel it far past $180 million. Still, $177 million on a $70 million budget is A-OK. Perfectly shows that you have to be budget-conscious sometimes, because your animated movie can't just easily pull $200-250 million worldwide grosses out of a hat.

The Secret Life of Pets still barks a bit, but nothing much has changed: $368 million stateside, $875 million worldwide. Wonder if Sing comes anywhere close...

Finding Dory ended its run on the 8th. $486 million domestically, as said before the biggest for an animated film in North America, topping the record held for 12 years by Shrek 2. Worldwide is a different story. It barely eked past Zootopia, made a stellar $1,027 million, but didn't quite flood Frozen.

Now we shall see how Moana does on the battlefield next weekend...