"La La Land" Lifts Off in Opening Weekend
Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 7:58PM
NATHANIEL R in La La Land, Moana, box office, musicals

What did you see this weekend? I've had the neverending winter cold so I've been totally out of it. Hope you've been enjoying more films than I! This weekend contained a spectacular debut for La La Land which grossed nearly a million in only five theaters. To put it in context that's about twice what Moonlight and Cafe Society were able to accomplish in their similar sized opening weekends which were considered quite strong at the time. It's about four-to-six times what other art house darlings of the year (like The Lobster, Jackie, Love & Friendship, A Bigger Splash) were able to manage in similar sized openings. Most of those films proved to have a ceiling around $9-12 million at the US box office but La La Land seems sure to cross over to mainstream success.

Also worth noting: A great weekend for the musical form in general since Moana stayed up top. 

TOP TWENTY
01 Moana $18.8 (cum. $145)  Review
02 Office Christmas Party $17.5 NEW
03 Fantastic Beasts $10.7 (cum. $199.3)
04 Arrival $5.6 (cum. $81.4)  Review and Podcast 
05 Doctor Strange $4.6 (cum. $222.3) Review
06 Allied $4 (cum. $35.6)  Review
07 Nocturnal Animals $3.1 (cum. $6.2)  Review and Podcast
08 Manchester by the Sea $3.1 (cum. $8.3) ReviewSecond Take
09 Trolls $3.1 (cum. $145.4) NEW
10 Hacksaw Ridge $2.3 (cum. $60.8) Review & Podcast

11 Miss Sloane $1.9 (cum. $2) Review
12 Almost Christmas $1.4 (cum. $40.2)
13 Bad Santa 2 $1.2 (cum. $16.8) 
14 Incarnate $1 (cum. $4.2) 
15 La La Land $855K NEW  Reviewish & How Rare Is It? 
16 Loving $623K (cum. $6.5)  Review and Podcast
17 Edge of Seventeen $620K (cum. $13.8) Review
18 Moonlight $589K (cum. $10.8) Review and Podcast 
19 Jackie $495K (cum. $869K) Review
20 The Accountant $460K (cum. $85)

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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