Weekend Wrap-Up: Aquaman Leads the Way, While Most of Top Five Thrives
January 8, 2019
It was a good weekend at the box office as four of the top five films beat expectations. This includes Aquaman, which led the way with $31.00 million. Overall, the weekend was down by 26% from last weekend, falling to $138 million, but this was a post-holiday weekend, so this was to be expected. Compared to the same weekend last year, 2019 got off to a 16% slower start.
Aquaman remained in first place with $31.00 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $260.02 million. It would take something drastic to not reach $300 million domestically; in fact, it should get to that milestone before it gets squeezed out of the top five. If there’s any doubt the DCEU’s new vision was a success before, that should be over now.
Escape Room was surprisingly potent opening in second place with $18.24 million. The film only cost $9 million to make and while it likely cost nearly double that to advertise, this is still a fantastic start. Granted, its reviews are nothing special, but it did earn a B from CinemaScore, which is great for a horror film. Additionally, MLK day is coming up and this film could still be in the top five at that point, so its legs will get a boost, perhaps enough to get past $50 million. If it does, then Sony’s share of the box office will be more than its combined production and advertising budgets.
Mary Poppins Returns slipped to third place with $15.86 million over the weekend for a total of $128.82 million after three weeks of release. The film will break even, but it won’t be the $200 million hit everyone was assuming it would be.
Bumblebee managed fourth place with $13.20 million over the weekend for a total of $97.56 million after three weeks of release. The film is about to match its $102 million production budget, while it is screaming towards $300 million worldwide. The film will very likely break even very early in its home market run, if not sooner.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse fell to fifth place with $13.13 million over the weekend for a total of $133.97 million after four weeks of release. This film is also screaming towards $300 million worldwide, which is enough to ensure a sequel or two.
The sophomore class wasn’t as strong, as Vice was the best, despite falling to seventh place with $5.73 million over the weekend for a total of $29.73 million after two. It did win a Golden Globe on Sunday, so perhaps that will help its legs. On the other hand, Holmes and Watson could lose a significant portion of its theater count after falling to tenth place with $3.30 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $28.31 million. Its theater average is just $1,188 and that will convince a lot of theater owners to drop it.
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Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Aquaman, Bumblebee, Vice, Holmes & Watson, Escape Room, DC Extended Universe