With Super Bowl weekend on its way and the increased volume of films theaters are expecting not arriving until later in the year, the box office is expected to face a major slowdown until Valentine’s Day. The top film this weekend, with an opening of just $12 million from 3,161 theaters, is Lionsgate’s Mark Wahlberg thriller “Flight Risk.”
Like its fellow January release “Den of Thieves: Pantera,” “Flight Risk” follows the Lionsgate blueprint of being a low budget thrill ride financed through slate deals, co-production partnerships and foreign sales that will allow it to clear a low break-even point.
Which is good because the flight path for “Flight Risk” is murky as it received a C on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 21% critics and 63% audience. It’s possible that the film tails off in the weeks ahead due to competition from football and the upcoming Universal action film “Love Hurts.” Still, it will join “Den of Thieves 2” and “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” on the list of Lionsgate films that finish in the black as the studio tries to regain its theatrical footing.
Disney’s “Mufasa” is in second with $8.7 million in its sixth weekend, giving it a total of $221 million domestic and $626 million worldwide. Sony’s “One of Them Days” is in third with $8 million, bringing its total to $25 million after two weekends against a $14 million budget.
Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” takes fourth with $5.5 million, bringing it to a $226 million domestic and $446 million global total. The latest $1 billion grosser, Disney’s “Moana 2,” completes the top 5 with $4.3 million in its ninth weekend.
Just outside the top 5, Neon’s “Presence” opened to $3.4 million from 1,750 screens. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and produced on a $2 million budget, “Presence” premiered at Sundance last year and was acquired by Neon for an undisclosed amount. Critics were impressed by the film, but audiences expecting more traditional scares from the tense ghost story were mixed as the film earned a C+ on CinemaScore and RT scores of 87% critics and 54% audience.
“Presence” is in a tie for sixth with Universal/Blumhouse’s “Wolf Man,” which after getting tepid reception in its opening weekend has fallen 69% to a $3.4 million second weekend. With such a poor drop, the film’s chances at profitability have dropped as well, as it has a two-weekend total of $17.8 million against a reported $25 million budget.
Finally, A24’s “The Brutalist,” which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards this past week, expanded to 1,118 and grossed $2.8 million, bringing the 3.5 hour epic drama’s total to $9.3 million.
