TAGGED AS: Box Office, movies, news
A pair of newcomers led the way this week as we make our way into February after a rather underrated month. Well, maybe not so much for new releases, as their collective totals were not close to the past two years, But thanks to December holdovers, this was the second-best January the box office has had since the pandemic. Chicken Little is going to have to go back inside for a while, as another animated hybrid helped give the month that push.
Though two of its first three days were in February, Dog Man still counts as a January release, and it made an impression. Its $36 million debut is enough to get it into the top 10 openings of January, beating the special edition of Star Wars ($35.9 million), The Devil Inside ($33.7 million), and The Green Hornet ($33.5 million). Kung Fu Panda 3 may own the best animated opening of January with $41.2 million, but this is a pretty solid start for the $40 million production based on the graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey. The Captain Underpants adaptation, originally created by Pilkey, opened to $23.8 million in June of 2017 and finished with $73.9 million. Can Dog Man become just the 1oth January film to break $100 million?
Only six of the nine films among the prior top 10 openings managed that feat, with Cloverfield, Taken 3, Ride Along 2, and The Devil Inside coming up short. Paul Blart: Mall Cop, The Upside, and the first Taken were the other three. January is typically not the month to release family fare, but those that have been released have managed to post healthy returns over their opening weekends of $17 million or higher. The Nut Job did 3.3x its start, A Dog’s Purpose even better with 3.54. Then we had Paddington (4.02), Kangaroo Jack (4.03), Hotel for Dogs (4.29), and Snow Dogs (4.55). Heck, even the notorious bomb Dolittle had a 3.52 multiple. Even an average return among those could put Dog Man in position to become that rare January release.
Horror has not really come to life this year yet. Warner Bros. gave it a shot this week with Companion, Drew Hancock’s $10 million production with Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid. The comedic sci-fi tale opened to $9.5 million, which is hardly bad, given the small budget. But it did open lower than Darkness Falls, Night Swim, or The Mothman Prophecies, with each of those grossing between $32-36 million. This one could be headed more in the $25 million region. It added another $5.5 million overseas.
Third place goes to Mufasa: The Lion King, finishing its seventh weekend with $5.3 million and bringing its total up to $229.5 million, while Sonic The Hedgehog 3 made $3.2 million and has now banked $230.5 million. Mufasa is ultimately going to win this battle, but together they have been responsible for over $1.1 billion at the global box office in that time. Sonic surpassed $462 million worldwide this weekend and is still headed to around $240 million domestic. The original Night at the Museum made $6.3 million in its seventh go and had a total of $225 million. It had some small drops over its next couple weeks, one of which was aided by President’s Day weekend, which Mufasa will enjoy as well. So we’re sticking with a final domestic gross in the $250 million region. In the “hold my kava” spot is Moana 2 making $2.8 million in its 10th weekend in the top 10. It’s now over $453 million domestic, which is part of its $1.037 billion contribution to the global box office.
Another film that can declare victory is Sony’s One Of Them Days, which is turning into a true word-of-mouth success. The $14 million production grossed another $6.3 million this weekend, bringing its total up to $34.4 million. That is nearly three times its opening weekend in just 17 days. With drops of just 32.2% and 25%, the film is following the pattern that The Count of Monte Cristo did back in 2002 when it had a $6.4 million third weekend and $32.3 million banked. One of Them Days is looking like a $50+ million grosser at this point and is second only to Dog Man in new 2025 grossers.
Mel Gibson’s Flight Risk, last week’s top film, fell over 50% down to $5.6 million in its second week. That brings the Lionsgate release up to $20.9 million. That’s a similar path to the 2016 horror film The Forest, which made $5.9 million in its second weekend for a total of $21.3 million. It dropped way off in its third weekend and ultimately finished with just over $26 million. Flight Risk still looks headed for last week’s estimate of closer to $30 million.
Rounding out the top 10, we have a pair of Oscar hopefuls. James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown made another $2.1 million. At $66.6 million, it is the highest-grossing release since the rebranding to Searchlight Pictures under Disney and is the sixth highest-grossing in the history of Fox Searchlight and beyond. Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist made $1.8 million, bringing the total of the A24 release to $12.1 million. Then in 10th place with $1.6 million is Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, bringing its total over $34 million. Despite the film having made just $43 million globally, reports are saying that a third film in the series is in the works from Lionsgate.
Steven Soderbergh’s Presence fell 60% to $1.3 million to bring its total to $5.8 million. That’s the same amount of dough that Well Go USA’s release of Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force made in only 200 theaters. Wicked passed $470 million domestic after another $1.2 million this weekend. In just its third weekend, Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man dropped out of 1,300 theaters and fell 65% to $1.1 million. In 17 days it has grossed just $19.9 million. Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, on the other hand, in its quest to become Focus’ highest-grossing domestic release ever, added $800,395 to its total of now $94.7 million. A little more than $2 million to go.
Briarcliff’s military actioner Valiant One grossed $725,000 in 1,275 theaters. Finally, Bleecker Street’s AI love story Love Me, with Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, made $204,036 in 527 theaters. Their release of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths has made just $766,000 to date and never hit more than 542 theaters in four weeks.
Next week is the battle of two very different approaches to the impending Valentine’s Day. Sony is releasing the slasher film Heart Eyes from Werewolves Within and Scare Me director Josh Ruben, while Universal has Love Hurts, the martial arts version of A History of Violence, starring Oscar winners Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose. Speaking of the Oscars, Bong Joon-ho’s Best Picture-winning Parasite is getting an IMAX re-release and Oscar hopeful documentary No Other Land opens in some markets, along with A24’s Parthenope.
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 ©Lionsgate Films
