As expected, Super Bowl weekend has brought the usual slowdown for the box office, with 20th Century Studios’ “Death on the Nile” leading the charts with an opening day of $5.1 million from 3,280 theaters and an estimated weekend total of $12-13 million.
Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Poirot murder mystery is a follow-up to “Murder on the Orient Express,” which was released by 20th Century Fox prior to the Disney acquisition in November 2018 and opened to $28.6 million largely off of turnout from moviegoers over the age of 50. Such turnout was not expected for “Nile” given the pandemic.
Reception for “Death on the Nile” has been mildly positive with a 65% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a B from audiences on CinemaScore, the latter of which was the same grade given to “Orient Express.” “Nile” is one of the last pre-acquisition projects from Fox to be released by Disney, with “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” coming out on Memorial Day weekend.
Also opening this weekend is Universal’s romantic comedy “Marry Me,” which is neck-and-neck with the second weekend of Paramount’s “Jackass Forever” for No. 2 on the charts with both estimated to earn around $8 million this weekend. “Marry Me,” which has been released simultaneously on Peacock for paid subscribers, has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 57% and a B+ CinemaScore grade. “Jackass Forever,” meanwhile, is heading for a 10-day total of around $37 million.
Holiday powerhouses “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Sing 2” complete the top 5 with “Spider-Man” in fourth with $7.7 million and “Sing 2” with $3 million. By Monday, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” will pass $760 million in domestic grosses and in doing so will pass the North American run of “Avatar,” standing only behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Avengers: Endgame” on the all-time charts.