Big weekend for guys with creepy smiles as Grinch and Venom open huge

Box office round up

Venom opened in China!

Just saying that right off the bat so you all don’t immediately jump to the comments to yell at me. While Venom has been doing perfectly fine without China it opened there this past weekend and tore open the box office with $111 million. That’s the second largest opening for a superhero movie in China ever, and Sony’s largest ever. Let’s all take a wild guess at which lackluster American actress is going to be replaced by a Chinese actress in the sequel!

Back over in democracy land, it was another grumpy guy who says mean things to people that pulled in the cash: The Grinch netted a cool $66 million. While my cold, disenchanted heart didn’t appreciate the film, audiences definitely did, and with surprisingly little holiday-themed competition in the coming weeks, it should get plenty of continued support throughout the next month. 

Meanwhile, The Girl in the Spider’s Web (I am not typing out its insanely long full title) pulled in only $8 million, basically sealing the deal on us not getting anymore Dragon Tattoo movies. Honestly, the Swedish adaptations are great, and Hollywood just needs to stop trying to make this franchise happen.

By the way, if you’re hankering for some old-school grindhouse fun, I can’t recommend Overlord enough. It came in third with just $10 million, slightly under expectations, but if you’ve got some free time and just want to enjoy some gore it’s worth the ticket. 

1. Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch – $67,572,855
2. Bohemian Rhapsody – $31,201,568
3. Overlord – $10,202,108
4. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms – $10,086,869
5. A Star is Born – $8,105,163
6. The Girl in the Spider’s Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story – $7,810,112
7. Nobody’s Fool – $6,636,242
8. Venom – $4,915,378
9. Halloween – $3,998,885
10. The Hate U Give – $2,051,363