Box Office Report: Dreamworks’ ‘Trolls’ Top Disney’s ‘Wish’ In Tight Box Office Race

The post-Thanksgiving moviegoing weekend is a slow one, but for Disney’s latest, it was even slower than usual. After a dispiriting Thanksgiving holiday launch, Wish plummeted 62% to an estimated $7.4 million in its second weekend, good for fifth place.

The lethargic second weekend dashed hopes that Wish might’ve had a long and steady box office run like Pixar’s Elemental, which ultimately ended up grossing over 5x its opening weekend. After 12 days in theaters, Wish has eked out only $41.9M.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Wish has already outperformed Disney’s last film, Strange World, which ended its domestic run with $37.9m. Not only that, Wish has also outgrossed Strange World internationally ($39.6m to $35.6m).

Then there’s Trolls Band Together, which if not necessarily a box office smash is still a modest success story. It edged out Wish this weekend despite playing in nearly 300 fewer theaters (and despite having been released a week earlier).

The Universal/Dreamworks Animation film landed in fourth place with $7.6m (estimated) in its third weekend. Trolls, which was produced at a significantly lower cost than Wish, is now at $74.8m domestic. Add another $85.8m internationally, and it has trekked past $160m globally.

Our chart below shows the daily domestic earnings of Trolls Band Together and Wish. The two films have evened out to nearly the same daily amounts over the last week, which is a scenario that few box office pundits would have predicted.