Amazon MGM’s “Red One” has seen its numbers improve after an uptick in ticket sales on Saturday, but it still doesn’t look like it will leave much of a mark at the box office with a domestic opening weekend of $34 million from 4,032 theaters.
Let’s start with the good news: the Seven Bucks-produced Christmas action film starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans performed above Friday estimates with $13.2 million grossed on Saturday, and the film earned an A- on CinemaScore and an 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes after getting mostly negative reviews from critics. That could help the film as it tries to leg out into December as a seasonal offering.
But a $34 million start, which hits the top end of pre-release projections, would still be considered a huge bust for a $250 million action film starring A-listers like Johnson and Evans were it released by a legacy studio that doesn’t have the largesse of a parent company like Amazon.
It’s not a particularly strong showing for Dwayne Johnson either. “Red One” is opening similar to the openings he earned for the $120 million budgeted “Rampage,” which launched to $35.7 million before inflation adjustment in 2018, and the $50 million-budgeted “Central Intelligence,” which opened to $35.5 million in 2016.
Amazon MGM maintains that it judges the return on investment for its films on not just their theatrical grosses but the long-term value it brings to Prime Video. “Red One” was initially greenlit as a streaming exclusive title prior to Amazon’s acquisition of MGM in 2023 but pivoted to a theatrical debut in part to raise the film’s profile and also to show the studio’s commitment to theatrical distribution.
The business brought by “Red One” will certainly be a benefit to theaters, which have seen lower-than-expected numbers in October and early November after “Joker: Folie a Deux” failed to be the tentpole hit sequel exhibitors hoped. But more anticipated and better reviewed films are on cinemas’ doorstep with Universal’s “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II” coming on Friday, followed by Disney’s “Moana 2” — also starring Johnson — on Thanksgiving.
Those films could very well cut “Red One” off from the audiences that may otherwise be interested in it due to the strong word-of-mouth from opening weekend crowds, many of whom are devoted fans of Johnson. If that happens, any success “Red One” sees will probably take shape in the form of streaming viewership data that, unlike box office numbers, isn’t publicly disclosed.
This weekend’s overall grosses are set to come in at an estimated $76 million, around 35% down from the same weekend last year when “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” opened in theaters. The domestic box office is approximately down 12% from last year, but that gap will begin to drop next weekend should “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” meet or exceed their projected openings of $80 million and $65 million respectively.
Sony’s “Venom: The Last Dance” only needed $7.3 million to take the No. 2 spot on the charts this weekend, bringing its domestic total to $127.6 million. Overseas, the film continues to show considerable legs along with a boost from China that its 2021 predecessor, “Let There Be Carnage,” did not have. With $436 million grossed worldwide, “The Last Dance” is $70 million away from passing the $506 million global total of “Carnage.”
Lionsgate’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is in third, grossing a solid $5.4 million in its second weekend. With just under $20 million grossed so far against a $10 million budget, the film has already exceeded the domestic total of Lionsgate’s late summer bomb “Borderlands” and needs just $15 million to become the studio’s highest grossing film this year.
A24’s “Heretic” also held well with $5.1 million in its second weekend for a $20.4 million two-weekend total, while Universal/DreamWorks’ “The Wild Robot” stayed in the top 5 for one more weekend with $4.3 million. With $137 million domestic and $308 million worldwide, “The Wild Robot” has legged out to a successful theatrical run with a sequel now greenlit.
Outside the top 5, Focus Features’ “Conclave” continues to perform well among older audiences with $2.8 million in its fourth weekend for a $26.5 million total. The Tagalog romance film “Hello, Love, Again” cracked the top 10 in its opening weekend, grossing $2.5 million from just 250 locations.
Finally, there’s Searchlight’s “A Real Pain” and Neon’s “Anora” rounding out the top 10. “A Real Pain” expanded wide to 1,185 locations this weekend, grossing a decent $2.3 million after earning $700,000 in limited release for a $3 million total. “Anora” added just under 400 locations in its fifth weekend and grossed $1.75 million in its fifth weekend to bring its total to $10.4 million.
