Any chances of the box office continuing its success seen over MLK Jr. weekend have pretty much been dashed, as the studios chose not to release anything more for the rest of the month. This weekend’s single new wide release offering just didn’t make waves with moviegoers.
Because of that, it was little to no surprise that the top five from last weekend remained the top five this weekend with Paramount Pictures‘ musical comedy, Mean Girls, leading the way with just $11.7 million, down 59% from its holiday opening. It has grossed $50 million domestically, and it added another $7.5 million from 18 international territories this weekend, opening #1 in the UK with $4.1 million. It has grossed $16.2 million overseas to bring its global total to $66.3 million, not bad for a movie that reportedly cost just $36 million to produce. Because that $11.7 million is a studio estimate from Sunday morning, it may be too early to tell if star Reneé Rapp‘s appearance as musical guest on Saturday Night Live (which is also produced by Mean Girls producer, Lorne Michaels) has any impact on
The action-thriller The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham, remained in second place with $8.5 million, down 49%, as it brought its domestic total to $31.1 million.
Timothée Chalamet‘s Wonka continues to be the biggest holiday release, remaining in third place with an estimated $6.7 million (down 21%), its $187.4 million domestic gross putting it ahead of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. That also makes it the highest grossing movie domestically to open since #Barbenheimer, and it’s looking likely to be the only movie to open in the fall that grosses more than $200 million domestic. Wonka added another $10.6 million overseas this weekend, for an international total of $344.6 million and global total at $531.8 million.
Also remaining in fourth place from last week was Sony‘s rom-com, Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell, which added another $5.4 million (down 24%) to bring its domestic total to $64.2 million. With the $36 million the movie has made oversseas, that puts the comedy just over $100 million worldwide, pretty astounding considering that it opened with just $6 million before Christmas.
Illumination Entertainment‘s animated Migration also continued to hold up well with $5.3 million in its fifth weekend to take fifth place, down just 15% from last weekend. It has grossed $94.7 million just in North America, benefitting from the holidays and the lack of other animated fare in theaters.
UPDATE: With actual box office reported on Monday afternoon, Migration actually took fourth place with $5.5 million to Anyone But You‘s $5.4 million, which puts it at fifth place.
Even Warner Bros‘ Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, starring Jason Momoa, was able to keep up its business, dropping just 30% from last weekend to take sixth place this weekend with $3.7 million. It has grossed $114.2 million domestically, and it added another $9.5 million overseas this weekend to bring its global total to $396.2 million, $282 million of that coming from international box office.
The one new wide release was the Bleecker Street outer-space thriller, I.S.S., starring Ariana DeBose and directed by Gabriela Cowperthwait, which Bleecker Street released into 2,520 theaters on Friday. The movie had received respectable reviews from its Tribeca Film Festival premiere in 2023, but those reviews lost some ground with non-festival reviews, ending up at 62% on Rotten Tomatoes. It ended up only grossing $3 million this week, averaging less than $1,200 per theater, but an even bigger shocker was the negative reaction by audiences towards the space drama, going by the “C-” rating on CinemaScore. That’s one of the worst ratings we’ve seen on the audience polling site in quite some time.
The Universal–Blumhouse–Atomic Monster horror film, Night Swim, had a smaller plunge in its third weekend, down just one spot to eighth place with $2.7 million (down 42%) to bring its total to $23.7 million. The die is already cast, though, and it’s already going to be available to buy and rent on digital starting tomorrow.
George Clooney‘s sports drama The Boys in the Boat stayed afloat with another $2.5 million to take ninth place with $43.8 million grossed domestically so far.
An expansion into 1,400 theaters helped Yorgos Lanthimos‘ Golden Globe-winning Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, make another play into the bottom part of the top 10, moving back into tenth place with $2 million (up 14%) to bring its domestic total to $20.3 million.
MGM expanded Cord Jefferson‘s acclaimed dramedy, American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright, into 850 theaters (up 225 theaters from last weekend), but it still ended up outside the top 10 in eleventh place with $1.8 million, down 5% from MLK Jr. weekend. It has grossed $8 million so far with more expansions to come, especially if it gets the expected Oscar nominations.
The IMAX-only concert film, Queen Rock Montreal, opened in 387 domestic IMAX theaters on Thursday for four nights only, although the breakdown of the $2 million it made this weekend is still unclear.
The Ava DuVernay drama, Origin, starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, was released by NEON into 125 theaters in select cities where it brought in $875,000, averaging $7,000 per theater, with plans to expand into 300 to 600 theaters this coming Friday. But other than that, there are no other new wide releases this coming Friday, so don’t expect the box office to recover before month’s end.
Another failed attempt to re-release a popular movie into theaters, as Sony re-released the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse into 466 theaters, though it bombed worse than Disney‘s planned Soul re-release last weekend, making just $150,000 or $321 per theater. That’s two major re-release flops in a row with more re-releases to come, including Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer getting its umpteenth release, presumably to take advantage of any Oscar nominations on Tuesday.
Talking about a non-event, Sony Classics expanded its drama, Freud’s Last Session, starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode, into 634 theaters on Friday, but no one noticed and no one cared, as it only made $324k or $512 per theater. It has grossed $505k so far.
