Before the weekend, it looked like M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller “Knock at the Cabin” would win the weekend quite definitively. But as numbers started coming in for it and Paramount’s new comedy “80 for Brady,” things were looking like it may be a tighter race for first place.
Universal released the former, starring Dave Bautista, Ben Aldridge, and Jonathan Groff, into 3,643 theaters with Thursday previews that amounted to $1.4 million and a Friday opening of $5.4 million (including those previews). By comparison, “80 for Brady,” which united Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno for the true story of octogenarian besties with dreams of attending the Super Bowl, would be released into 3,912 theaters with $1.27 million grossed in earlier previews. That ended up with slightly less for $4.7 million on Friday, benefitting from theater chains offering reduced ticket prices for all showings.
Both movies generally received mixed-to-positive reviews, with Shyamalan doing slightly better with critics, getting 68% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the 64% Rating for “Brady.” Audiences were a different story, as theater-polling site CinemaScore reports “Knock” receiving a “C” rating to “Brady’s” “A-,” the latter which could point to legs over the next month.
According to the Sunday estimates, “Knock at the Cabin” grossed $14.2 million for the weekend or just under $4,000 per-theater, while “80 for Brady” came just behind it in second place with $12.5 million. Shyamalan’s film added another $7 million overseas for a $21.2 million global opening, but that domestic opening was lower than his prior thriller, “Old,” which opened with $16.8 million during the summer of ‘21.
“80 for Brady” ended up making an estimated $12.5 million in 3,912 theaters, but considering that most tickets were sold at matinée prices, it clearly sold more tickets than “Knock” despite having to settle for second place.
Dropping out of first place for the first time since opening, James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” made another $10.8 million this weekend, down 32% from last weekend to take third place. The mega-blockbuster grossed another $27.9 million overseas, bringing the international total to $1.53 billion and global total to $2.174 billion. Regardless, it’s still quite a ways away from the $2.7 billion made by the original “Avatar” in 2009.
Continuing to do huge business, the animated sequel “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” featuring the voices of Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek Pinault, dropped to fourth place with just under $8 million with a running domestic total of $151.3 million.
Trafalgar Releasing released the concert event movie “BTS: Yet to Come” into 850 theaters on Thursday, where it made $1.6 million. Early estimates have it making more than $6 million over the weekend to take fifth place.
Tom Hanks’ “A Man Called Otto” dropped to sixth place with $4.2 million, down 37% from last weekend with a North American total of $53 million. It added another $3.8 million overseas, for a global total of $83.4 million.
The horror hit “M3GAN” and Sony thriller, “MISSING,” followed closely in seventh and eighth place with $3.8 and $3.7 million, respectively.
Angel Studios decided to give the Season 3 finale of “The Chosen” a theatrical release into 1,979 theaters. After making $1.7 million on Thursday, it made another $2.3 million on Friday but then, lost much of its business over the weekend to only end up with $3.6 million for ninth place and $5.3 million including Thursday. That’s quite a bit lower than the $8.7 million the first two episodes of the season made when opening in theaters back in November.
Last week’s Bollywood action hit, “Pathaan,” had the biggest week-to-week drop, down 61% from its opening for $2.7 million in 10th place. It has grossed $14.3 million, a new domestic record for Yash Raj Films.
There were no numbers reported for Crunchyroll’s anime feature “Sword Art Online the Movie – Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night” or for the animated adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s “The Amazing Maurice,” although neither is likely to get into the top five despite wide releases.
The real make-or-break for this week’s box office prediction game might be that fifth place slot, but the majority of players had “Avatar” in second place and “80 for Brady” in third place, and only 40 players had those in the correct placements. Only two players had the BTS movie taking fifth place, and if Sunday’s estimates stick, they might be the only players predicting six for six.
No one got a perfect score for the January 27 game, but “MonStar” miraculously picked “Pathaan” to take third place and made that his Super Bet, putting him over the top with the points despite only getting four places correct. Way to go!
Next weekend sees the release of Channing Tatum’s “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” and a 25th-anniversary re-release of James Cameron’s “Titanic,” so check back on Wednesday to see how they might do.
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