‘Thanksgiving’s Global Box Office Debut Is a Horror Hit

Despite competition at the box office, director Eli Roth’s original horror film Thanksgiving is riding a wave of positive buzz on its way to a strong debut. The film opened to $10.2 million domestically, and another $2.4 million from 11 overseas markets, for a global debut of $12.6 million. Thanksgiving finished at the number three spot domestically, although it’s in a close race with Disney’s The Marvels, which is delivering a record second-weekend drop for a Marvel Cinematic Universe title, and one of the worst ever for a superhero movie.

The domestic chart was topped this weekend by The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, with the animated three-quel Trolls Band Together taking the number two spot. Another new release, Next Goal Wins, rounded out a top-five list dominated by debutantes. Thanksgiving comes just ahead of its namesake holiday when the marketplace will become more crowded with the mid-week debuts of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Disney Animation’s Wish. The film also comes on the heels of the surprise horror hit Five Nights at Freddy’s, which has delivered over $130 million domestically despite a day-and-date streaming release, but is nearing the end of its front-loaded run.

‘Thanksgiving’ Is Eli Roth’s Best-Reviewed Movie

Joining Five Nights at Freddy’s on the list of the highest-grossing horror movies of the year are Scream VI ($108 million domestic), M3GAN ($95 million domestic), The Nun II ($86 million), Insidious: The Red Door ($82 million) and Evil Dead Rise ($67 million). While Thanksgiving opened lower than each of these movies, it’s easily the best-reviewed of the lot. The film currently sits at a “fresh” 83% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes — a career-best for Roth — and earned a recommendation from Collider’s Emma Kiely, who called it “a horror meal worth biting into.”

A slasher film based on the mock trailer Roth directed for Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, the film follows the murderous exploits of a mysterious serial killer in small-town Massachusetts. Roth previously directed the gory horror films Hostel and The Green Inferno. Thanksgiving stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon, and will next debut in markets such as Belgium and France (November 29), Mexico and The Netherlands (November 30) and Brazil (December 7). Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Thanksgiving

After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the infamous holiday.

Release Date November 17, 2023

Director Eli Roth

Cast Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon, Patrick Dempsey, Milo Manheim, Addison Rae

Runtime 107 minutes

Genres Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Writers Jeff Rendell, Eli Roth

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