Weekend Box Office: 'The Grinch' Wins With $66M; 'Overlord,' 'Girl in the Spider's Web' Snubbed

Courtesy of Illumination and Universal Pictures

'The Grinch'

The massive Woolsey Fire results in the Los Angeles area being slightly down in terms of box-office revenue; overseas, Sony's 'Venom' opens to a massive $111 million in China.

Hollywood's obsession with reviving dormant film franchises was met with mixed messages at the weekend box office.

Christmas came early for Illumination and Universal as The Grinch, the second big-screen adaptation of the classic Dr. Seuss holiday tale after Ron Howard's 2000 film, opened to a pleasing $66 million from 4,414 North American theaters despite mediocre reviews (it fared better with audiences, earning an A- CinemaScore). Voiced this time out by Benedict Cumberbatch, the CG-animated pic is the first family event film of the year-end corridor.

On the other hand, The Girl in the Spider's Web, starring Claire Foy, opened to a disappointing $8 million from 2,929 locations in a blow to Sony, MGM and New Regency's attempt to reboot the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series. The $43 million film, dismissed by many critics, is currently tied withA Star Is Born, now in its sixth weekend, for fifth place. The order won't be decided until Monday morning.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, Girl in the Spider's Web is likewise struggling overseas, where it took in $6.2 million from 49 markets for an early foreign total of $8.2 million and $16.3 million globally.

In 2011, Sony released the English-language adaptation of the first novel in the Millennium series, directed by David Fincher and starring Rooney Mara as Salander opposite Daniel Craig. The film debuted domestically to $12.7 million in December 2011 on its way to earning $230 million globally, not adjusted for inflation. The original Millennium trilogy of films was adapted for the screen by Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev and starred Noomi Rapace as Salander in a breakout role. The first film was released in February 2009, with sequels in September and November of the same year, both directed by Daniel Alfredsson......

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