Yeah, I believe so. Pixar are too safe. DreamWorks were always a bit more fun, as are Illumination.

Despicable Me was Illumination's Shrek. It would be 7 years before they made another great animated flick, so hopefully it's only a matter of time.

I never cared for Despicable Me and the rest of Illumination's film look too kiddie for my taste. But competition is always a good thing

Passengers flopping is a shame cause they already ignore romance genre too much, now it gives them a reason to.

Sci-fi is a hard sell anyway. Sci-fi romance? I'm surprised this was supposed to be a huge hit.

SciFi is clearly not a hard sell but the subgenre SciFi-Drama or -Romance usually is.

I think the fomula was: "a few space movies did very well recently, and J-Law Xmas movies do well, so this is guaranteed"

BOM:

1 ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY $14,965,790 -14.9% $205,225,599
2 SING $11,010,175 New $11,010,175 ($2,737 PTA from 4,022 theaters)
3 ASSASSIN'S CREED $4,623,401 New $4,623,301 ($1,593 PTA from 2,902 theaters)
4 PASSENGERS $4,106,572 New $4,106,572 ($1,181 PTA from 3,478 theaters)
5 MOANA $2,126,327 -30.5% $170,457,987
6 OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY $1,240,561 -18% $35,736,474
7 COLLATERAL BEAUTY $854,192 -29.9% $10,095,862
8 FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM $734,502 -31.3% $210,467,126
9 MANCHESTER BY THE SEA $625,000 -13.8% $16,059,319
10 LA LA LAND $603,205 -2% $7,198,823

11 ARRIVAL $306,638 -37% $87,947,199
12 JACKIE $266,986 +209.6% $2,052,346
13 DOCTOR STRANGE $252,769 -38.1% $227,330,731
14 NOCTURNAL ANIMALS $115,605 -45.6% $9,366,073

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/char ... -21&p=.htm

Luckily it's the holidays cause that's bad for Passengers.

Good hold for Star Wars and La La Land. Beasts, Moana and Collateral Beauty not so much.

Beasts lost a 1/3 of its theaters. It held pretty damn well actually.

early Thursday #s from Deadline:
Rogue One - 16.5
Sing - 9
Passengers - 2.9
Assassin's Creed - 2.3

Up up and away Rogue One

Looks like Moana could be in third place this weekend. Lol at Assassins Creed and Passengers.

update from RTH:
R1 - 16.9
Sing - 9.8
Passengers - 3.1
Assassin's Creed - 2.8

Well at least the openers increased w/o previews besides AC.

The last relevant comp year was 5 years ago so I won't be surprised if Friday increases are comparatively stronger. Previews and discount Tuesday was pretty much a non factor in 2011 and certainly 2005.