‘Encanto’ tops the box office, but ‘House of Gucci’ is the real winner

The Thanksgiving box office has never been regarded as one of the year’s strongest frames, so when it was first announced that Walt Disney Animation would be releasing a new animated feature, there was only going to be one winner.

As expected, Encanto has comfortably topped the charts, but an estimated $40 million haul across the five-day holiday is a little lower than expected. Part of the reason for that is Ghostbusters: Afterlife only being in its second weekend, not to mention the fact it’s largely aimed at the exact same family audience. Jason Reitman’s hybrid of sequel and reboot held steady in second with a solid second frame of $24.5 million over the three days, and $35 million since Wednesday.

However, given that Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci cost less to make, has proved polarizing among critics and is one of those dreaded titles aimed at older audiences that have struggled badly throughout the entirety of the pandemic, we’d have to say the fashion drama is the real winner.

The buzz, controversy and the director’s public hatred of millennials all combined to push the true-life tale to a $14 million three-day, and $21.8 million for the long weekend. Given that it was cheaper to produce than both Encanto and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, it would be fair to say that the unsung hero of the weekend is the glitzy, glamorous and largely hammy House of Gucci.