This Weekend has been one of the lowest for cinemas. Attendance was scarce, however Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever keeps attracting viewers in its fourth week at theaters. The sequel maintains its first place as the most watched collecting $17.59M. Marvel is hard to beat; however, a pretty badass Santa Claus came close to it in its debut. Violent Night – an action holiday film starring David Harbour as Santa – was the second most watched. The film collected $13.3M during the weekend, surpassing the projection the studio had for its debut. After Stranger Thing’s latest season having Harbour as a lead is definitely a good bet.

In the feature, Harbour has to save a wealthy family from a group of mercenaries. Even though the fight might sound as uneven, the Santa the bad guys need to fight in this film is far from the classic figure we have in mind. The film is produced by Universal and today the studio’s Domestic Distribution Chief Jim Orr referred to the weekend success:

“Violent Night had a terrific debut this weekend. 87North, director Tommy Wirkola, and the incomparable David Harbour as Santa crafted an incredibly original, fun, irreverent take on the ultimate superhero that thrilled audiences this weekend and will for many weeks to come”

Violent Night is refreshing for a holiday film, it has been described as horror/action, which are genres that attract a large audience. We are more used to holiday movies being on the rom-com side and it is always appealing to see something that feels new.

Other films that made it to the top-ten list are Disney’s Strange World in 3rd place grossing $4.9M. The animation feature had a difficult start, even though there are no major animation films playing in theaters right now.In fourth comes Mark Mylod’s The Menu, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes. The film collected $3.55M this week.Sony’s Devotion was the 5th most watched, Followed by I heard the Bells and DC’s Black Adam.

The specialty films that have been able to enter the top-ten this week are Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans (8th) and Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All (9th).

Surprisingly Ticket to Paradise, a romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts still attracting audiences. The film has been at theaters for several weeks and was the 10th most watched this weekend.

With no major popular releases coming next weekend, it is likely that the audiences will be scarce again. However the acclaimed film by Darren Aronofsky The Whale will premiere, which is a great reason to go out for a film.