Theatres will be stuffed with Thanksgiving openings and will also have some extra box office gravy.
Four studio-wide releases are due 11/23:
- Universal/Amblin’s PG-13 drama THE FABELMANS (pictured) from Steven Spielberg, is based in part on his childhood.
- Disney’s PG animated STRANGE WORLD is an original tale about an explorer family.
- Sony/STX’s PG-13 Korean War action drama about two Navy fighter pilots risking their lives.
- UAR/MGM’s R romantic horror (cannibalism) drama BONES AND ALL is about a young woman surviving on society’s margins in the 1980s.
This Thanksgiving menu isn’t quite “mouth-watering,” but it does have in FABELMANS & STRANGE traditional family fare for Turkey
Weekend. Added unexpectedly to the mix is Netflix’s PG-13 crime dramedy GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY with Daniel Craig back as detective Benoit Blanc.
While this sounds good for boosting Thanksgiving business, this GLASS is just half-full. It will only play in 600 major circuit houses (AMC, Regal & Cinemark) plus a few indie cinemas and just for one week. Then GLASS goes into Netflix’s deep freeze until it starts streaming on 12/23.
GLASS will take some ticket sales away from other Thanksgiving titles. Since Netflix doesn’t report grosses, we’ll wind up seeing a lower total gross for the overall holiday marketplace. Box office reports will explain why, but those footnotes will soon be forgotten. Watch for Wall Street analysts to spin lower Thanksgiving ticket sales into their ongoing sky-is-falling-on-exhibition narrative.