With three weeks to go until its release, the first tracking numbers are in for Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, with estimates suggesting The Grinch will comfortably gross a $50 million plus domestic opening weekend.
The last feature adaptation of the book, the Jim Carrey-headlined How the Grinch Stole Christmas, debuted to $55 million back in 2000, on its way to a domestic haul of $260 million and worldwide haul of $345 million.
The Grinch marks the second Dr. Seuss adaptation from Illumination and Universal after 2012’s The Lorax. That movie opened to $70.2 million, earning a total of $348.8 million globally during its run. If The Grinch can show legs in the run in to the holiday season, then it wouldn’t be a surprise to see its worldwide haul coming in at twice that figure or more, assuming it lives up to the standard we’ve come to expect from Illumination over the past few years.
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Academy Award® nominee Benedict Cumberbatch lends his voice to the infamous Grinch, who lives a solitary life inside a cave on Mt. Crumpet with only his loyal dog, Max, for company. With a cave rigged with inventions and contraptions for his day-to-day needs, the Grinch only sees his neighbours in Who-ville when he runs out of food.
Each year at Christmas they disrupt his tranquil solitude with their increasingly bigger, brighter and louder celebrations. When the Whos declare they are going to make Christmas three times bigger this year, the Grinch realizes there is only one way for him to gain some peace and quiet: he must steal Christmas. To do so, he decides he will pose as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, even going so far as to trap a lackadaisical misfit reindeer to pull his sleigh.
Meanwhile, down in Who-ville, Cindy-Lou Who-a young girl overflowing with holiday cheer-plots with her gang of friends to trap Santa Claus as he makes his Christmas Eve rounds so that she can thank him for help for her overworked single mother. As Christmas approaches, however, her good-natured scheming threatens to collide with the Grinch’s more nefarious one. Will Cindy-Lou achieve her goal of finally meeting Santa Claus? Will the Grinch succeed in silencing the Whos’ holiday cheer once and for all?
The Grinch is set for release on November 9th.
