Feature Animation Surge

While the new Ang Lee/Will Smith reboot sputters, The Addams Family surges to second place:

1) Joker -- 4,374 -- $55M (-43%) -- $192.7M

2) The Addams Family -- 4,007 -- $30.3M -- $30.3M (1st weekend)

3) Gemini Man -- 3,642 -- $20.5M -- $20.5M (1st weekend)

4) Abominable -- 3,496 (-752) -- $6.1M (-48%) -- $48M

5) Downton Abbey -- 3,019 (-529) -- $4.9M (-39%) -- $82.7M

6) Hustlers -- 2,357 (-673) -- $3.85M (-40%) -- $98M

7) Judy -- 1,627 (+169) -- $3.26M (-29%) -- $14.9M

8) It Chapter Two -- 2,303 (-860) -- $3.22M (-39%) -- $207.1M

9) Jexi -- 2,332 -- $3.1M -- $3.1M (1st weekend)

10) Ad Astra -- 1,678 (-1,232) -- $1.9M -- $47M

The Addams Family comes in at the top end of earlier projections, skating over mixed reviews and what many critics describe as a bland, by-the-numbers script. Even so, the movie goes back to Addams's original designs and triumphs commercially. (The pic cost a mere $40 million, subsidized by the usual boatload of Free Money from Canadian subsidies.) Addams will make M-G-M and its partners a tidy sum of money.

Next up: Maleficent II flies into the marketplace, with Klaus and Frozen 2 soon to follow.