Disney’s newest animated film/merchandising opportunity, Moana, pulled in $28 million at the domestic box office this weekend, bringing its total gross to a healthy $119.9 million dollars and securing it the No.1 spot for the second week in a row. But even that distinction couldn’t keep an icy breeze from blowing through Disney’s subtropical profit margin, as Box Office Mojo reports that the film dropped 50 percent from its opening weekend on what was, overall, a sluggish weekend at the movies.
The weekend’s only other new release, the Brad Peyton exorcist/superhero mash-up Incarnate, fared either quite poorly or surprisingly well, depending on how you look at it. The film came in at No. 9 with $2.65 million, which is decidedly not great for a film opening on 1,737 theater screens, but is impressive for a film that didn’t screen for critics and was quietly deposited into said theaters without a single TV advertisement. Speaking of, the War on Christmas propaganda piece Believe—which didn’t screen for critics, and we declined to review here at The A.V. Club—came in at No. 17 in its first week, just edging out Pablo Larrain’s well-reviewed, Natalie Portman-starring Jackie Kennedy biopic Jackie at No. 20.
Meanwhile, the rest of the top five barely moved, as Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them hung on to its No. 2 spot with $18.5 million and Arrival and Doctor Strange switching places at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively. Meanwhile, Allied stayed static at No. 4, for while magic and science may be locked in eternal conflict, the appeal of pretty people in pretty clothes kissing each other remains constant.