“ Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ” led a crowd of new releases at the box office on the weekend before Christmas Monday. The DC and Warner Bros. superhero sequel starring Jason Momoa earned an estimated $28.1 million in its first three days of release in 3,706 locations in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. By Monday it is projected to have around $40 million in domestic ticket sales.
Despite many new offerings — including the family friendly animated film “ Migration,” the R-rated romantic comedy “Anyone But You,” the wrestling tragedy “ The Iron Claw ” and a ghostly tearjerker in “ All of Us Strangers ” — this will go down as a quieter pre-holiday frame at the box office. Moviegoing audiences perhaps just had other priorities than going to the cinema.
