Weekend Box Office

Weekend Box Office: Flight Risk Lands at No. 1

The Mel Gibson action thriller starring Mark Wahlberg gave Lionsgate its second big win of 2025, while Steven Soderbergh's Presence debuted in sixth.

by | January 27, 2025 | Comments

TAGGED AS: , ,

We’ve hit that inevitable moment of the year when a lot of holdovers and a pair of newbies have just enough juice to produce a single 10-figure tally for the weekend. That’s worse news for theaters than the distributors, as this week’s new releases were made for very reasonable price tags, like last week’s films, which remain options for moviegoers and will look slightly better in the grosses column. Perhaps the biggest story this week is seeing Lionsgate, which had not a single film top the weekend box office in 2024, now has its second of 2025, and we are still only in January.


King of the Crop: flight risk lands at no. 1

That winner this weekend was Flight Risk, Mel Gibson’s action thriller with Mark Wahlberg, which grossed $12 million. That is slightly better than his Oscar-winning Braveheart, which started with $9.9 million back in 1995. Hacksaw Ridge more recently started with $15.1 million in 2016, and even his all-Mayan language tale, Apocalypto, began with $15 million in 2006. It’s a slightly better opener for Wahlberg as of late, after Father Stu started with $5.4 million and last year’s Lionsgate release of Arthur the King opened to $7.6 million. Those last two films finished with $20.8 million and $25 million, respectively. Two years ago, Plane with Gerard Butler opened with $10.2 million and finished its run with $32.1 million. Somewhere in the vicinity of $30-35 million is where Flight Risk is likely to land.


Tales of the top 10: holiday holdovers hang on, Wolf Man drops further

Back to second place goes Mufasa: The Lion King after its wild but successful run at the top of the box office since opening just before Christmas. In its sixth weekend it made $8.7 million, bringing its total over $221 million. That ranks 24th among December releases after 38 days, though weekend six ranked 10th among them. In 25th place on that list was Mufasa’s current spirit animal, Night at the Museum, which had a $9.5 million sixth weekend and was up to over $216 million. That could still keep Mufasa on a pace to finish around $250 million domestic. This week, it surpassed $626 million at the global box office and may be finishing somewhere between $650-700 million for a solid profit.

Last week’s surprise weekend victor (at least over Wolf Man) stuck around at third this week. One of Them Days made $8 million to bring its 10-day haul to $25 million. In 2004, You Got Served got off to a $25.8 million 10-day start with a $7.5 million second weekend. John Singleton’s Higher Learning had $24.8 million in that time and fell to a $6.1 million second frame. One of Them Days continuing along these paths could see it ending up with a $40+ million final haul. Not bad for the $14 million production.

Fourth place goes to Mufasa’s Dec. 20 competitor, Sonic The Hedgehog 3, also in its sixth weekend. The franchise sequel grossed $5.5 million to bring its total up to $226 million. That puts it one notch above Mufasa at 23rd on the 38-day list of December openers. Mufasa still has the better long-range plan and looks to ultimately pass it as Sonic is slated to finish closer to $240 million, as we have been reporting for weeks. In fifth is the billion-dollar Moana 2. The Disney release grossed $4.3 million and hit the $450 million mark domestically. Globally the film is at $1.026 billion.

Sixth place is a battle, starting with the disappointing Wolf Man. The Leigh Whannell horror update from Blumhouse fell hard to just $3.4 million this weekend, bringing its total to just $17.8 million in 10 days. The $25 million production is not getting much traction overseas with just another $5 million to date. The film barely lost to this weekend’s other new release, Steven Soderbergh’s point-of-view ghost tale Presence. The Neon release, which premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, also made $3.415 million in 1,750 theaters. Neon is already looking ahead in a big way to Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey next month.

Rounding out the top 10, we have James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, fresh off a whole slew of Oscar nominations. It grossed $3.1 million to bring its domestic total to nearly $63 million for the $70 million production. Lionsgate’s release of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is down to just $3 million in its third week. That brings its domestic total to $31.8 million; it doesn’t look like much of a continuing franchise, as the $40 million production has grossed just over $40 million worldwide and needs to see those triple digits in front of the six zeroes. One film hoping not to come up with zeroes on Oscar night is Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, which expanded into over 1,100 theaters post-nominations Thursday. It grossed $2.8 million to up its total to $9.3 million.


Beyond the Top 10: Brave the Dark, Wicked, Nosferatu, and more

Just outside the top 10, we have Angel Studios’ latest release, Brave the Dark, coming in with $2.5 million. Their holiday release of Homestead also cracked $20 million this past week. Universal’s Wicked officially left the top 10 this week but still grossed $2.4 million to bring its domestic total to over $468 million. Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu also fell from the list with $2 million. Focus’ release may be struggling now to become their first ever $100 million domestic release, as it stands with $93.2 million. It just needs a few million more to become their highest-grossing domestic release of all-time.

Paramount’s September 5 got itself an Original Screenplay nomination and expanded into 395 theaters, but it grossed just $770,000 (a $1,949 per-theater-average) to bring its total $1.6 million. Even with its Best Picture nomination, Amazon still has not gotten any traction for Nickel Boys, which made just $340,000 in 540 theaters for a total gross of $1.5 million. Sony Classics, on the other hand, saw their freshly minted Best Picture and Best Actress nominee, I’m Still Here, gross $240,000 in just 17 theaters. And finally, IFC released Neil Burger’s iPhone-shot Inheritance in 627 theaters, and it grossed just $132,000 for a per-theater average of just $211.


On the Vine: Companion Offers One Final January Jolt of Horror

Warner Bros. is going to try to give January one last jolt of horror with Companion, and for the kids, there is the animated Dog Man.


Full List of Box Office Results: January 17-20, 2025


  1. Flight Risk – $12 million ($12 million total)
  2. Mufasa: The Lion King – $8.7 million ($221 million total)
  3. One of Them Days – $8 million ($25 million total)
  4. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 – $5.5 million ($226.1 million total)
  5. Moana 2 – $4.3 million ($450 million total)
  6. Presence – $3.415 million ($3.415 million total)
  7. Wolf Man – $3.4 million ($17.8 million total)
  8. A Complete Unknown – $3.1 million ($62.9 million total)
  9. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera – $3 million ($31.8 million total)
  10. The Brutalist – $2.8 million ($9.3 million total)

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

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.