The Color Purple won Christmas weekend.
Variety reports that the film adaptation of the Broadway musical took over the box office with $18 million in domestic weekend gross. The film became the largest Christmas Day opening since 2009, according to the outlet. It also became the second-biggest Christmas Day opening in film history.
Overall, the film blew away weekend contenders Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Wonka. Aquaman came in second, with Wonka coming in third for the weekend box office gross tally. The film is also leading the pack on Monday, despite two other films, Ferrari and The Boys in the Boat coming to theaters.
Variety reports that The Color Purple also earned another financial accolade. The film “collected more in a single day than recent stage-to-screen stories–including West Side Story ($10.5 million), In the Heights ($11 million), Dear Evan Hansen ($7.5 million) and Cats ($6.6 million)–earned in their opening weekends.
The film stars Fantasia as Celie, a woman in 1900s Georgia who is terrorized in her marriage with her husband Mister (Colman Domingo) and blocked from being with her sister. She learns how to find her voice and take back her power with the help of other women in her life, such as singer Shug (Taraji P. Henson) and Sophia (Danielle Brooks).
Check out Shadow and Act’s interviews with the cast of The Color Purple below.