The theatrical streaming series about the life of Jesus reached the top 10 at the Thanksgiving box office for the second weekend in a row, surpassing Hollywood Oscars such as She Said.
“The Chosen Ones Season 3: Episodes 1 & 2” was No. 9 at the box office Friday through Sunday with $1.6 million in gross ticket sales, according to the Associated Press. The biographical drama She Said , about the journalists who uncovered Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault story, was 10th with $1.1 million.
Some industry analysts say that should send a message to Hollywood.
“The success of ‘The Chosen’ shows that Hollywood is leaving money, but audiences don’t understand,” said Hunter Duesing, a Texas film teacher and co-host of the late-night Cowboys. podcast “Films like She Said are trendy for people in the media, but not very attractive outside of a small group.”
When both films opened on 2,000 screens this past weekend, The Chosen One took 3rd place with $8.7M and She Said 6th with $2.2M.
“The Chosen One” grossed $13.5 million on Monday, according to Jared Gissey, Angel Studios’ senior vice president of global distribution.
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The theatrical release consists of two episodes of the TV show, which the Utah-based company will release digitally next month.
“This is exactly where we were hoping to land,” Mr Gizzi said. “The reason people come to see our crowd-funded theater streaming shows is because we know who they are.”
Hollywood is facing the worst Thanksgiving weekend in box office history, aside from 2020, when the COVID-19 quarantine closed most theaters.
From Friday to Sunday, the box office was just US$95 million. The last time the movie industry failed to break $100 million over the Thanksgiving weekend in a regular year at the box office was 1994 — when the average movie ticket price was $4.08.
In the biggest failure of the weekend, Walt Disney Co.’s animated film. “Wonderful World” grossed just $11.9 million in North American theaters against a $180 million budget.
That put it in second place behind Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , which took in $45.9 million and topped the box office for the third weekend in a row.
Other Oscar contenders that flopped over the weekend included Korean War drama Devotion , about the Navy’s first black aviator (No. 3 with $6 million); the nationwide expansion of Timothée Chalamet’s cannibal novel Bones and All (#7 with $2.2 million); and Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical film The Fabelmans ($2.2 million).
Those grim accounts should prompt Hollywood to “rediscover what audiences want to see” in theaters while banishing adult dramas to streaming platforms, says Christian Toto, editor of HollywoodInToto.com.
A former columnist for The Washington Times, Mr. Toto said the pandemic has made it harder for theaters to wean audiences off the growing popularity of home streaming platforms. Even big names are not enough to convince audiences to watch unpleasant niche films in theaters, he noted.
“Oscar movies are dying at the box office,” Mr. Toto said. “Studios are also detached from populist principles. Who wants to watch a cannibal love story like “Bones and All” on Thanksgiving weekend?”
• This article is partially based on television reports.
