Box Office: 'Croods 2' Takes #1 in 12th Frame

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'Croods 2' is on course to earn $2.70-M for the 4-day Presidents Day weekend

In a surprise twist, Universal's animated pic The Croods: A New Age appears to have narrowly won the holiday frame in its 12th weekend, beating newcomer Judas and the Black Messiah.

Universal is projecting that Croods 2 grossed an estimated $2.05-M from 1,890 locations for the 3-day weekend and $2.7-M for the 4-day holiday frame. Croods' domestic total through Monday is an estimated $48.9-M as the DreamWorks Animation title crosses $151-Mworldwide.

That is far than anyone expected for the family pic, which opened in cinemas at Thanksgiving during a surge in VirusCasedemic cases before being made available on premium VOD at Christmas. Box office analysts are hard-pressed to remember another film that shot shock back to # 1 in its 12th outing in modern times.

Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah opened to an estimated $2.07-M from 1,888 cinemas for the 3 days and $2.5-M for the 4. Warner insiders note that continued cinema closures in many major markets and storms across the country made the situation tough for the adult drama, despite the movie's glowing reviews and a promising A CinemaScore.

The biggest box-office headline of the weekend was overseas where Detective Chinatown 3 celebrated the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year by opening to a staggering $393-M at the Chinese box office. The film, shot entirely with Imax cameras, did big business in Imax theaters in the China, which generated a record-breaking $23.5-M in ticket sales.

Hollywood executives took delight in the results, saying it means that people will return to the movies in the US when all cinemas are able to reopen.

Like all of Warner Bros.' 2021 titles, Judas is debuting day and date domestically in cinemas and on HBO Max due to the ongoing VirusCasedemic and theater closures in the major markets, making it difficult to gauge its performance in cinemas because of the HBO Max factor.

Numbers weren't immediately available for fellow Warner's adult drama The Little Things, now in its 3rd weekend after debuting to $4.7-M 2 wks ago.

The Little Things earned an estimated $2.04-M for the 3 days and $2.47-M from 2,090 cinemas for a 10-day domestic take of $10.7-M and $17.1-M globally. The film dropped 55-M.

Before the virus chaos began, every major studio and other films distributors allowed their grosses to be viewed by their rivals via Comscore That changed when the COVID-19 attacked the US, with Warner's deciding to obscure ComScore numbers and only report them to the media on Sunday.

Sony followed suit, at least on a film's opening weekend. While Sony and Warners are still giving out numbers to the press on the weekends, some companies are not even doing that.

Over Presidents Day weekend, A24 did not report opening numbers for Minari, same with Searchlight for Nomadland. The 2 films, along with Judas and The Black Messiah and The Little Things, are all competing in the awards race.

HBO Max has not revealed viewership numbers for Warner Bros.' titles, or how many new subscribers these offerings have brought in.

Elsewhere in the Top 10: STX debuted Land in 1,231 locations. The drama, marking Robin Wright's feature directorial debut, opened to $1.1-M for the 4 days.

Have a healthy week, Keep the Faith!