'The Croods 2' Earns The Biggest Box Office Opening Since The Pandemic, But It's Nothing To Brag About

Considering how many people decided it was okay to fly across the country for Thanksgiving in the middle of a pandemic, it should come as no surprise that some people were also willing to risk their lives to see what an animated caveman family has been up to after seven years.

The Croods 2: A New Age opened in theaters for the holiday weekend, and while it had no problem taking the top spot at the box office and surpassing Tenet for the biggest box office opening since the coronavirus pandemic began, these numbers are still nothing to brag about.Box Office Mojo reports that The Croods 2 earned $14.2 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. Meanwhile, the standard three-day weekend total stands at $9.72, which is enough to surpass Tenet's opening weekend of $9.35 million. That means The Croods 2 now has the biggest opening weekend in theaters since the coronavirus pandemic began back in March. Yikes.

With this latest box office victory, if you want to call it that, Univesral Pictures has now held the top spot on the domestic box office charts for five weeks in a row. Come Play and Let Him Go (released by Focus Features under the Universal banner) previously took the top spot, and Freaky was number one for two weeks in a row.

Speaking of Freaky, the body swap horror comedy took the number two spot, but it didn't even break $1 million. The weekend before Thanksgiving, it was the only movie to earn more than $1 million. But over the holiday weekend, it only earned just under $800,000. Perhaps that's because the advertising for the movie's arrival on VOD began over the weekend, keeping more people from heading out to theaters. But more likely, it's because it's the third weekend for the movie in the middle of a pandemic.

Still holding strong in the number three spot is The War with Grandpa, adding just over $585,000, making its grand total nearly $17.2 million after eight weeks in theaters. And the rest of the top five is filled out by the aforementioned Focus Features releases Let Him Go and Come Play, earning $453,695 and $373,770 respectively.

The box office is likely to keep being uninspiring throughout December until Wonder Woman 1984 arrives in theaters on Christmas Day. That has the potential to have the biggest theatrical opening of the pandemic, but since it's also getting released on HBO Max at the same time, perhaps the numbers won't be so high. Maybe there's a chance for Monster Hunter to make a dent at the box office, which is slated to hit theaters on Christmas as well. Come back in a few weeks, and we'll find out.