Box Office: ‘Violent Night’ Ho Ho Hoarding Projected 11.8 Million Opening

“Violent Night” is receiving some holiday cheer with a second place opening on domestic charts, but Santa and his reindeer won’t be able to sleigh the reigning box office leader “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”Universal’s action film, which stars David Harbour as a cranky Kris Kringle that takes on a team of mercenaries, is debuting around the middle of its projections, projecting an 11.8 million haul from 3,682 locations. That’s a decent result for the 87North production, which carries a frugal 20 million production budget.Directed by Tommy Wirkola, “Violent Night” landed so-so with critics, but earned a more positive “B+” grade through research firm Cinema Score, indicating some solid approval from ticketbuyers. Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman wrote that the film “throws every genre it can into the compactor, but that may prove to be a winning holiday buffet.” With a foundation to build from, “Violent Night” could find itself ...