First Holiday Movies Hit the Big Screen This Weekend

Both movies are pegged to top $50 million in receipts, according to Box Office Mojo, with the animated “Big Hero 6” expected to ring up $60 million in domestic ticket sales to $58 million for “Interstellar.”

Over the just-past Halloween weekend, “Ouija” from Comcast Corp.’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Universal Studios posted receipts of $10.74 million in its second weekend of release to beat newcomer “Nightcrawler,” which took in $10.44 million on its opening weekend.

Opening on just five screens this weekend is “The Theory of Everything,” a biopic on the life of Stephen Hawking from NBCUniversal’s Focus Features. The film is expected to garner at least $40,000 per screen and has received strong reviews and award buzz for its lead actors.

Among the theaters where “Interstellar” is playing are 370 U.S. IMAX Corp. (NYSE: IMAX) houses, making this the biggest ever IMAX release. The box office gross from the IMAX release is expected to be in the neighborhood of $12.5 million, on a par with “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Skyfall.” Internationally the film is opening on a total of 760 IMAX screens this weekend.

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