‘Arrival’ Stuns in U.S. Box-Office Debut

Superhero adventure film Doctor Strange dominated the U.S. box office for the second consecutive weekend, scoring $43 million in domestic ticket sales. The Benedict Cumberbatch vehicle now has a hefty domestic total of $153 million. The DreamWorks kids film Trolls came in second, nabbing $35 million and boosting its U.S. two-week total to $94 million. And while sci-fi thriller Arrival—starring Amy Adams—came in third, it stunned observers by outpacing its expected intake of $16 million by raking in $24 million, thanks in part to extraordinarily good reviews (at one point, the film’s trailers boasted, the Denis Villeneuve-directed movie had a 100 percent “fresh” rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes). Universal’s Almost Christmas debuted in fourth with $15.6 million, and Lionsgate’s World War II film Hacksaw Ridge earned $10.8 million to bring its U.S. total to $32.3 million.