Super Bowl weekend has never been great for the box office, with only a few breakout hits over the years. This year, it was especially bad, and as usual, weekend estimates are exactly that: estimates, since it’s too early to determine how this year’s big game night affect Sunday box office.
Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault starred in “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” the third and presumably final chapter of the male stripper franchise with returning director, Steven Soderbergh. Warner Bros. only gave the movie a moderate release into only 1,500 theaters, while reviews were not great, sitting at 46% on Rotten Tomatoes. Warners didn’t report the movie’s Thursday previews or Friday take, which was later reported to be $4.1 million. Based on WB’s Sunday estimates, “Magic Mike” only made $8.2 million this weekend, averaging $5,467 per location, which was still enough to be the #1 movie over Super Bowl weekend.
That amount is down quite a bit from the $12.9 million opening of “Magic Mike XXL” in 2015, although that was released into 3,355 theaters over 4th of July weekend. That’s also more than $22 million less than the opening for “Dear John” in 2010 and $33 million less than 2012’s “The Vow,” two previous Tatum movies that opened against the Super Bowl, and before he was quite as well-known as he is now. You’d also have to go back almost two years to find a movie with a lower #1 opening, and that was Universal’s “Nobody,” which opened with $6.8 million while many theaters were still closed due to the pandemic.
The 25th anniversary re-release of James Cameron‘s “Titanic” made $6.4 million in 2,464 theaters this weekend, bringing the movie’s all-time box office gross to $665.8 million domestically. Overseas, it made another $15.9 million, bringing its all-time global total to $2.217 billion. It’s likely to lose most, if not all, of its 3D and IMAX screenings next week, so there’s definitely a ceiling on how much the re-release might add.
And yet, it also had to cede second place to Cameron’s box office mega-blockbuster “Avatar: The Way of Water” which added another $6.9 million this weekend, down 39%, to jump back up the charts with $646.9 million grossed just in North America. Overseas, the “Avatar” sequel added another $18.9 million, and it’s very likely to pass “Titanic’s” worldwide gross in the next week. It only needs around $4 million to become the third-highest grossing global blockbuster of all time.
In its second weekend, Paramount’s football-related comedy “80 for Brady” made $6 million, down 53% from its opening weekend. It has grossed just below $25 million in North America alone.
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Universal seems to have a virtual tie for fifth place between M. Night Shyamalan‘s “Knock at the Cabin” and the DreamWorks animated sequel, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which both reported making an estimated $5.5 million this weekend. For “Knock,” it would be a massive 64% drop from its opening weekend, bringing its total to $23.5 million, while “The Last Wish” took another minor 30% drop to bring its North American total to $158.5 million.
“Puss in Boots” added another $12.1 million overseas, bringing its global take to $393.7 million, while “Knock” added another $3.9 million internationally for a global total of $36.8 million.
Things are so close between those last three movies that we might have to wait until Monday afternoon to see which one takes fifth and sixth place, although it feels like “Puss in Boots” is less likely to be affected by the Super Bowl on Sunday evening.
Tom Hanks’ “A Man Called Otto” made another $2.6 million this weekend, down 38%, to take seventh place, bringing its domestic total to $57.4 million.
Just behind it was the Sony thriller, “Missing,” with $2.6 million (down 30%) and $26.6 million total, while Universal’s horror hit, “M3GAN,” added another $2.4 million this weekend (also down 38%) to bring its total to $90.9 million, but it’s going to be a tough road to make $100 million with so many stronger releases in the coming weeks.
SEE What to watch this weekend February 10, 2023: Movie awards contenders
IFC Films released Christopher Smith’s horror film, “Consecration,” starring Jena Malone and Danny Huston, into 762 theaters on Friday where it tanked with just $365,000 or $479 per theater.
It might be too early to tell who will win this week’s box office prediction game due to that tie for fifth place. Players were split for first place between “Magic Mike” and “Knock at the Cabin” but three times as many players had “Avatar” in second place than “Titanic.” Only 17 players correctly predicted “Titanic” to take third place, though, and 48 players had “80 for Brady” taking fourth. Whether “Knock” ends up ahead of “Puss in Boots” for fifth place might be the true decider, since only 15 players predicted that.
No one went 6 for 6 on the Feb. 3 box office game, but of the eight that got five right, regular winner “Max” was ahead with a whopping 56,233 points, and it was all about putting his Super Bet on “Puss in Boots” taking fifth place. Congrats!
Next weekend is all about Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” so check back on Wednesday for our preview of its weekend potential.
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