‘The Color Purple’ rakes in $18M, the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since ’09

It's the second-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time, too. "The Color Purple" collected more in a single day than recent stage-to-screen stories earned in their opening weekends.

“The Color Purple,” a vibrant adaptation of the book-turned-beloved-movie-turned-hit-Broadway-musical, dominated at the box office on Christmas Day.

The film has outperformed expectations with $18 million from 3,152 North American theaters. It’s the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since 2009, and the second-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time.

Those ticket sales were enough to lead the way on Monday ahead of two other newcomers, Neon’s racing drama “Ferrari” and director George Clooney’s inspirational sports story “The Boys in the Boat.” Warner Bros. impressively held the top three spots on domestic charts as “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “Wonka” swam to second and third place, respectively.