TAGGED AS: Box Office, movies, news
While fans flocked to the return of the 28 Days Later series to theaters last summer, whatever they thought of that film’s more introspective approach to death and loss did not have them flocking back to The Bone Temple. That left the door open for James Cameron to add one more little unique statistic to his mantle. Plus, the race for the top film of 2025 is not over yet, as we just got another $100 million grosser to add to the tally with a potential seventh on the way.
It has been well established by now that Avatar: Fire and Ash is not The Way of Water when it comes to domestic performance. Case in point: The Way of Water was at $564.6 million by this point, and Fire and Ash is now at $363.5 million after a $14.4 million sixth weekend. That’s $200 million less. Can’t really say it’s run its course when Jurassic World: Rebirth was one of the highest-grossing films of 2025. Fire and Ash is still fourth on that list and chasing Zootopia 2, as it is still on track to crack $400 million domestic. It also has grossed $1.319 billion and is now among the top 25 films worldwide. Fire and Ash is the first film to lead the box office for five straight weeks since 2022 when The Way of Water did it for seven weeks just after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever led for five. Fire and Ash is only the fifth film to lead the way for five weeks in the 2000s. The other two being the first Avatar and the first Black Panther.
The fourth chapter in the 28 Days series — or the second film in the reboot sequel trilogy, or however it is being framed — is the best-reviewed film of the lot at 93%. However, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple came up well shy of its predecessor from last June, which started with just over $30 million. The Bone Temple made less than half of that with $13 million and an estimated $15 million through the holiday. Despite an A- Cinemascore from polled audiences, it seems the disenchanting 67.5% dive of the last film in its second weekend and its mere 2.34 multiple to $70.3 million was a sign of things to come. Thanks to $80 million overseas, Sony should have been able to clear a profit on that one. Less so is the case here, as this film has made just $16 million overseas thus far. Reportedly in December, the studio already greenlit the next chapter of the series to continue this film’s cliffhanger, with Danny Boyle hoping to return. We’ll see how that moves forward after the disappointing start to this one.
Zootopia 2 has reached its peak across the world. The bucks are still rolling in as it rolled past 2019’s The Lion King ($1.662 billion), Jurassic World ($1.671 billion), and Inside Out 2 ($1.698 billion) to become the highest-grossing animated film to come out of Hollywood and Disney with $1.703 billion. But it is unlikely to reach Spider-Man: No Way Home’s $1.921 billion for eighth place. So congratulations No. 9! Where it hasn’t reached its peak is here in North America. After making $8.7 million this weekend and $12 million estimated through the holiday, its domestic total is up to $393.2 million. By next weekend it will become the 54th film to reach $400 million here. Every couple million from there will allow it to rise on that chart. It still needs $30 million more to pass A Minecraft Movie as the top grossing domestic release of 2025. That film’s Memorial Day weekend lines up with Zootopia 2’s MLK weekend in number of days in theaters, if not dollars, as Disney’s film more than bested its $2.91 million four-day holiday haul. Zootopia 2 is chasing Minecraft. Avatar is chasing Zootopia 2. Next week will be a big tell if this can become the No. 1 film of last year domestic as well as worldwide.
The Housemaid just became the sixth R-rated film released in 2025 to reach $100 million, joining Sinners, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Weapons, Final Destination: Bloodlines, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle. We’ll see if the upcoming sequel will follow, but for the time being, the original has added $8.5 million and estimated over $10 million over the 4-day weekend to bring its total to nearly $109 million. This is doing Patch Adams numbers right now ($8.1 million in its fifth weekend) and could be headed for around $140 million domestic; it will hit $250 million globally this week, and there could still be another $100 million out there just waiting to be spent on this one.
This is the last weekend before Marty Supreme will be heralded as an Oscar nominee, and that should reinvigorate its box office. Drops could be light. The numbers may even go up. As long as that happens, its path to $100 million should be set. Right now, after making $5.4 million this weekend, its total is estimated to nearly $81 million through the holiday, and it is now officially A24’s highest domestic grosser ever. In the same timeframe, American Hustle had already reached $100 million by this weekend on pre-nomination eve. It then had a near-19% increase the following week, all while losing 425 theaters. If we take the awards bump out of the equation and Marty Supreme follows a more traditional path, it could come up just short in the $95 million region. But A24 is certainly going to stay the course, promoting its way toward a Chalamet victory and its first domestic $100 million release and the seventh R-rated film of 2025.
In its second weekend the killer monkey film Primate fell back to fifth place with $5 million, pushing its total over $20 million through Monday. This puts it in line with horror films The Forest and One Missed Call, which had respective sophomore weekends of $5.97 million and $5.98 million, along with $21.3 million and $20.4 million hauls after 10 days. If the drops continue along their lines, Primate may finish around $25-27 million, though $30 million is not out of the question. Audiences were almost as interested in Orcs this weekendm as Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was put back into 1,686 theaters by Fathom Entertainment and made $4.1 million over the holiday. The Two Towers fell just out of the top 10 with $2.9 million through Monday. The trilogy made over $5 million just in pre-sales alone. Never say there isn’t an audience for classic movies on the big screen.
Perhaps greenlighting a $90 million sequel to a Gerard Butler film wasn’t the smartest of plays. Greenland 2: Migration fell 60% in its second weekend to $3.3 million for a total of just $14.6 million domestic through 11 days. That could be brushed off if the film was raking in the dough internationally. Since the first film (a $52.3 million overseas hit during the pandemic) did so well without a domestic release, the likely hope was for some exponential gains after five years of home viewing. Granted, the film has not yet opened in many of its successful markets from back in 2020, but so far its limited international reach has only made it $459,820 to date when it is going to need $200 million alone out there to even this thing out on the books.
Jack Black and Paul Rudd’s Anaconda redux should be into profit for Sony by now. An additional $3.2 million brings it to nearly $60 million domestic through the holiday, which, added to its international haul, puts it over $121 million. Not a bad run for the $45 million production. Hanging on for one more weekend in the top ten is The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants with $2.3 million. That brings its total to $67.7 million through Monday as it seeks to dogpaddle over the $70 million line. Globally the film is over $135 million, about $190 million less than the first sequel in 2015 before the pandemic helped drown the third film.
Chan Park-wook’s No Other Choice almost entered the top 10 this weekend as it expanded into 695 theaters. $2.2 million was nearly enough to make it, as it continues to draw solid crowds in its scattered limited release. Through the holiday it is estimated to be just below $7 million to date. Elsewhere, the animated musical David — Angel Studios’ second-highest grossing film to date — made $1.4 million to bring its 31-day total to $77.4 million.
Leading up to Oscar nominations (to be announced this Thursday), Kate Hudson is hoping to sneak into the Best Actress race for Song Sung Blue. It made $2.1 million over the four-day weekend to bring its total over $35 million. Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet made $1.6 million through the holiday to bring its total to nearly $15 million. It has made over $27 million worldwide. Row K expanded Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire into over 1,100 theaters this weekend and it made $1 million for a total of $1.43 million. Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? made $957,000 over the weekend and is estimated to be up to $5.6 million total through Monday. Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee expanded to 28 theaters and made $336,000. It should be over $800,000 by the end of Monday.
Amazon MGM goes away from the Prime (leaving that for the Jason Momoa/Dave Bautista film) to release Mercy in theaters. The latest from director Timur Bekmambetov stars Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. Also look for Return to Silent Hill, the third installment of the video game adaptation, with a return from original director Christophe Gans.
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©20th Century Studios
