Two sequels fuel a record holiday box office

‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ and ‘Creed II’ take top 2 spots for Thanksgiving weekend

LOS ANGELES — Movie sequels are having their own Thanksgiving feast at the box office and fueling record industry-wide grosses for the long weekend.

“Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “Creed II” took the top two spots on the North American charts, beat the openings for the original films and helped the five-day Thanksgiving box office totals cross the $300 million mark for the first time ever.

Studios on Sunday said Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph” sequel earned an estimated $55.7million over the three-day weekend and $84.5million since its Wednesday opening to take first place and become one of the biggest Thanksgiving openings of all time.

Its five-day Thanksgiving grosses are the third highest of all time, behind “Frozen” and “Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”

The film sees the return of the vocal talents of John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman, and it scored with audiences and critics.

The “Rocky” spinoff “Creed II,” starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, placed second with $35.3 million from the weekend and $55.8million since Wednesday, far surpassing the first film’s Thanksgiving debut in 2015. The sequel directed by Steven Caple Jr. has Jordan’s Adonis Creed fighting the son of Ivan Drago.

Third place went to Illumination Entertainment’s “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch,” which earned $30.2million in its second weekend, and just barely beat out the “Fantastic Beasts” sequel, “Crimes of Grindelwald” ($29.7 million) which is also in weekend two.

There was little left at the table for the latest version of “Robin Hood,” starring Taron Egerton. The poorly reviewed pic from Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment grossed only $9.1million over the weekend and $14.2million in its first five days in theaters against a reported production budget of nearly $100million.

Universal’s crowd-pleaser “Green Book,” starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen, expanded to 1,063 locations after a limited start and took ninth place with $5.4million.

Another awards season movie, Fox Searchlight’s acclaimed period piece “The Favourite,” with Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Oliva Colman, opened in four locations to $420,000.