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There is currently no stopping the Dog Man. After Mufasa and Sonic grabbed as many family dollars as they could throughout December and January, the fully animated comedy from the creator of Captain Underpants is commanding the month of February. It wasn’t without its challengers this weekend, but a Valentine’s killer and Ke Huy Quan in his first starring role since making his debut over 40 years ago could not even team up and combine their grosses to put a leash on the leader.
Dog Man became the first new release of 2025 to lead the box office for two consecutive weeks, something neither Den of Thieves 2 nor Flight Risk were able to achieve. However, parents across the country setting up for Super Bowl parties may have helped knock down the numbers for weekend two. Just $13.7 million represents an unusually high 62% drop for an animated film. That’s the kind of drop normally reserved for anime releases or films faced with a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic starting in their second week. The Simpsons Movie fell 66.1%, but that was after an incredible $74 million start for the PG-13 rated film. Pixar’s Lightyear fell 64.1% after a $50.5 million start, as did The Good Dinosaur (-60.9%) from a $39.1 million start. It’s not unheard of, and there are plenty more examples, but onward and upward.
Peter Hastings’ film did become the top-grossing film among 2025 releases earlier this week and will hold onto that title for a little under a week. It has made $54.1 million in 10 days, which is about $15 million off of Kung Fu Panda 3’s pace — a film that dropped just 7% in its third weekend. That will be hard to do on a holiday weekend that not only includes a new Captain America movie but also the third Paddington film. Unless the drops continue to be massive, Dog Man is looking somewhere in the $80 million domestic region. The $40 million production should have no problem getting over $100 million worldwide and declaring itself a hit.
This weekend Sony Classics released the rock doc Becoming Led Zeppelin into 369 IMAX theaters. It made it into the top 10 with $2.6 million with a $7,000+ per-theater-average. That is pretty solid for a non-performance-based tale of musicians in the documentary format. Even more incredible, this is the best launch in the history of Sony Pictures Classics. Granted, they are prone to limited platform releases and only ever opened a film into over 1,000 theaters on opening weekend once, and that was the Sundance pickup The Bronze, which began with $386,328 in 1,167 theaters. The best opening weekend they have ever had prior to this weekend was Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, starting with $900,688 in 350 theaters. Becoming Led Zeppelin blew that away.
In the battle of the new $18 million productions this weekend, Josh Ruben’s Heart Eyes can declare victory — at least, in the race between them. The horror rom-com with a solid Tomatometer score opened to $8.5 million. That’s after Wolf Man opened to $10 million and Companion to $9 million. Horror is going in the wrong direction. Where are you, genre fans? Wolf Man couldn’t have soured you that much. Critics are telling you they are good. Companion is Certified Fresh, and so is Heart Eyes. You didn’t even show up for Steven Soderbergh, and Presence is rocking a Certified Fresh 88%. There has not been an R-rated film to open in February to less than $10 million and hit $30 million since 2014. The last film to do it? Side Effects, directed by one Mr. Steven Soderbergh.
Not embraced at all by critics this weekend was the action comedy, Love Hurts. Jonathan Eusebio’s film featuring the first starring role for Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan since his screen debut back in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is currently at just 18% on the Tomatometer. That’s the lowest among all new wide releases of 2025 so far, and much lower than the other R-rated $18 million production that opened this weekend. Audiences paid some attention, though probably not enough, leaving the film with an opening of $5.8 million. How does that measure up in February? Well, no film (of any rating) since 2000 has managed to cross $20 million when opening to under $6 million.
Fourth place goes to Mufasa: The Lion King, continuing to hang around with $3.9 million. That drives its domestic total over $235 million, and it still has a shot to reach $250 million. It’s also tiptoeing its way towards $700 million globally (it has $671.1 million to date), but it also finally surpassed its holiday counterpart, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, on the domestic front. Sonic is also still earning with $1.7 million, and it is over $472 million worldwide. But for the first time since opening together eight weeks ago, Mufasa has passed it, $235.2 million to $233.0 million. Meanwhile, Moana 2, also still in the top 10, is over $456 million domestically alone and is now over $1.04 billion worldwide, good for 48th all time.
Back to horror and we have last week’s Companion, dropping to fifth with only $3 million. That’s a 68% drop, and it has grossed just $15 million in 10 days. However, the bottom line is in a bit better shape with just a $10 million budget and another $11 million overseas. In fact, with $26 million including international sales, the film is pretty much right where it needs to be to be declared a winner. Heck, even Soderbergh’s Presence is doing just fine enough with its tiny $2 million budget. OK, so Companion is more of a science-fiction comedy than a horror film, but they were selling it as such.
Another winner early in 2025 is One of Them Days, making $3 million in its third weekend. It is already a bona fide success on the verge of clearing $40 million. That’s a solid win for the $14 million production. Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk, on the other hand, not so much. Even as it heads towards $30 million per our original projections, it is down to $2.6 million in its third weekend, and with just $9 million more outside the U.S., it appears it will not pay back its $25 million price tag while it is still in theaters.
James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown dropped out of the top 10 with $1.2 million, bringing its domestic total to over $69 million. It has made another $20 million worldwide. Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist took a bit of a hit to its Oscar chances when Anora won the Producers and Directors Guild prizes, but the film is still in theaters, and another $914,000 brings its total to $13.7 million. A24’s release of Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope opened to $32,000 in 4 theaters. Sony Classics expanded Oscar contender I’m Still Here into 704 theaters and it grossed $940,000. Also in IMAX theaters was the re-release of Bong Joon-Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite, which made $326,000 in 193 locations. The wordless animated Flow, in contention for its own Oscars (Animated & International Feature), grabbed $96,000 this weekend to bring its total over $4 million.
As mentioned earlier, the upcoming President’s Day holiday promises to be a solid one for theaters. Leading the way will be Marvel’s long-delayed Captain America: Brave New World, with Anthony Mackie donning the shield and facing off against Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk President. The timing is really something, but Disney is hoping this can be the start of some old-school Marvel grosses. The Paddington films remain two of the best-reviewed films on the Tomatometer but have never been as popular here in North America as they are overseas where, including the upcoming Paddington in Peru, they have grossed nearly 600 of the franchise’s total $700 million haul. Warner Bros. is hoping audiences will have finally caught up with their magic.
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 ©DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures
