“Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night” is estimated to surpass “Napoleon” and “Poor Things” at the box office.
The Christmas special, which was a mashup of the two previous specials, is expected to total $4.6 million across the weekend. Those are the totals from 2,059 theaters, Deadline reported.
It came in at seventh for the weekend box office. “Wonka” dominated over the weekend, followed by “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” per Deadline. That would bring the estimated weekend total to $2.9 million and the total since its premiere on Dec. 12 to $4.6 million.
“South and the Midwest are the best regions, natch, for this faith-based movie. The Village Cinema, ID (which never pops up on any list of top grossing theaters for a movie) is the highest-grossing venue for the pic at $2k so far,” Anthony D’Alessandro wrote for Deadline.
Headlined by Andrea and Mateo Bocelli performing “O Holy Night” in French, this latest Christmas special also included two new monologues.
“This year I had an interesting idea ... what if we combined the two? I didn’t think it would work great, but it might be an interesting experience,” creator and director Dallas Jenkins said in an Instagram post about combining the two previously aired specials. “When Amanda and I saw the first rough cut, we were so moved ... it does work, and the nativity story took on even more relevance.”
The estimates put this latest Christmas special behind “Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers.”
On opening day on Dec. 1, 2021, “The Messengers” clocked in at $2.7 million and accrued $9.14 million across five days in theaters, according to Box Office Mojo. It ended up staying in theaters longer. The domestic box office was just shy of $14 million.
Across 1,000+ viewers, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes was 96% for “The Messengers.”
“‘The Chosen’ was birthed from my biggest career failure when few people showed up in theaters for my previous film,” Jenkins said when “The Messengers” released. “To sit in a theater full of people clapping and crying for Christmas music with an episode of a TV show about Jesus was an overwhelming experience.”
With 250+ ratings, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes of “Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night” sits at 85% as of Monday morning.
“Excellent way to prepare your heart for Christmas — amazing music performances and the real reason for the season told in a magnificent way!” Cathy, a verified reviewer, wrote.
Another verified reviewer named Karla said it was a “good blending of both films (The Messengers & The Shepherds) ... hope to see it released on DVD soon.”
“Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night” is expected to hit streaming in time for Christmas, but the release date has not yet been announced.
How long is ‘The Chosen’ Christmas special 2023?
“Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night” has a run time of 2 hours and 5 minutes, according to IMDb.