TAGGED AS: Box Office, Film, films, movie, movies
This weekend was not a particularly noteworthy one for the box office; that will be next week. But theaters and movies are still chugging along despite fewer moviegoers sneaking into theaters to close out February. There will be more of these as studios steer clear of March’s upcoming blockbuster and hope that the end of next month through April begins to light up the runway a bit for a more noteworthy summer season. Until then, though, we have the Foo Fighters doing horror, a musical advertised without the music, and an offer that some people, even after 50 years, still could not refuse.
(Photo by Clay Enos/©Sony Pictures)
Uncharted led the way, as expected, for a second week with $23 million. That is among the top 15 best second weekends ever in the month of February, driving its total to just over $83 million if the number holds. It is a similar second weekend to that of 2012’s Valentine’s Day entry, The Vow, also released by Sony, which had $84.9 million after 10 days. That puts Uncharted close to that film’s pace to finish with $125 million. Even with a bigger drop next week in attendance due to The Batman, if it can stay above $10 million, it may find itself right in line with that total. For now, we’ll set its final estimate between $120-125 million. Worldwide the film has grossed over $170 million to date.
(Photo by Everett Collection)
The best per-theater-average of the week did not belong to Uncharted, nor to either of the two new releases that made it into the top 10. It came from a film first released in 1972, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather was re-released into 156 theaters and grossed $900,000, just shy of the top 10, but with a PTA of $5,769. That is the sixth best opening PTA for a film in at least 4 theaters behind The Worst Person in the World ($34,606), Uncharted ($10,295), Scream ($8,193), Jackass Forever ($6,425) and The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert ($5,840).
(Photo by ©Open Road Films)
The Foo Fighters made a movie that was released this weekend, but not even some John Carpenter mojo (with a theme co-written by him and a cameo, no less) could bring genre fans out to the horror-comedy Studio 666. It opened in 2,306 theaters, grossed $1.58 million, and ended up in a select class of films that failed to reach a per-theater-average of at least $1,000. They include: The Adventures of Pluto Nash ($941), Major League: Back to the Minors ($899), We Are Your Friends ($758), Rules Don’t Apply ($667), and PLAYMOBIL: The Movie ($281). Studio 666 now joins them with a PTA of $685.
(Photo by United Artists Releasing)
Last week’s nice surprise, Dog, remained in second place with a solid drop to $10.1 million for a 10-day total of $30.9 million. That puts it between the February grosses of Broken Arrow (1996) and Curious George (2006), which went on to grosses of $70.7 million and $58.3 million, respectively. Dog’s second weekend is within a million of what those films did in their sophomore frame, and it now looks like a gross of over $50 million is very much in the cards. Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, meanwhile, is trending closer to the numbers of the films Sphere (1998) and The Roommate (2011). With $4.5 million in weekend three and $32.8 million in 17 days, it is aiming for not much more than $37 million.
Of course, sequels are continuing to do their thing in the top ten. One of the biggest films of all-time, Spider-Man: No Way Home made another $5.8 million this weekend, bringing its total to nearly $780 million. Sony has set the film’s Blu-ray debut on Apr. 12, just before it finally falls out of the Top 10. The second biggest film of the holiday, Sing 2, has surpassed $150 million with another $2.1 million this weekend. The fifth Scream film is likely to hit $80 million during next weekend, and Jackass Forever crossed $50 million with $3.2 million.
Also opening this weekend, finally, is Joe Wright’s Cyrano with Peter Dinklage. For all that its studio, UA Releasing, had done to get House of Gucci and Dog among some of the more successful original tales to hit theaters during the pandemic, they may have cost Dinklage an Oscar nomination for this one. Nobody would say this film was going to put up grosses similar to those others, so holding back this one until late February instead of allowing it to move its way through awards season before voting was over feels like a grievous error. This weekend’s release, which garnered a single nomination for Best Costume Design, was in 797 theaters and netted $1.4 million. The other tale of mismatched lovers in the top 10, Marry Me, fell to $1.9 million, just getting it over the $20 million mark.
(Photo by Jonathan Olley/©Warner Bros.)
Burton, Nolan, Snyder… All of them had a go at the Caped Crusader, and now it is Matt Reeves’ turn to take on The Batman. Robert Pattinson is the latest to don the suit to take audiences on a near three-hour ride through Gotham and its shady inhabitants. Expect to see it leap to become the biggest film of the year possibly by Saturday and likely remain in the top 10 at the box office until Memorial Day weekend.
40% Uncharted (2022)
77% Dog (2022)
93% Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
61% Death on the Nile (2022)
86% Jackass Forever (2022)
72% Sing 2 (2021)
61% Marry Me (2022)
56% Studio 666 (2022)
85% Cyrano (2021)
76% Scream (2022)
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]