Lionsgate bucked the trend of a difficult 2024 at the box office as Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera delivered the studio its first number one opening weekend since 2023 on an estimated $15.5m.
A solid if not spectacular debut did not appear to suffer unduly from the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, the number one market in the United States.
Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. star in the crime thriller buddy movie, which opened in 3,008 locations and reportedly carries a $40m budget. According to PostTrak, males accounted for 63% of the audiences and the over-25 crowd made up 82%.
This was a solid start after a poor 2024 that saw the likes of Borderlands, The Crow and five others disappoint at the box office. The 2018 original Den Of Thieves opened on $15.2m through the now defunct STX Entertainment and finished on $44.9m.
It was also Lionsgate’s first chart-topper since The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes in November 2023. Coming up for the studio this year are Ballerina, the John Wick spin-off starring Ana de Armas, and Michael Jackson biopic Michael.
Meanwhile Paramount’s Robbie Williams biopic Better Man floundered in its expansion weekend, ranking 14th after expanding from six to 1,291 sites and earning $1.1m for a $1.2m running total despite strong reviews.
Michael Gracey directed the account of the British performer’s tempestuous time with the boy band Take That and his subsequent skyrocketing solo career. Paramount paid $25m for North American rights to the biopic in early 2024, which reportedly cost $110m and needs to go some way to recoup for its financiers.
Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King ranks second on $13.2m for $188.8m after four weekends. A relatively modest return nonetheless propelled the tentpole past $500m worldwide to settle on $539.7m. Meanwhile Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 3 in third place crossed $200m in its fourth weekend as $11m pushed the children’s tentpole to $204.5m.
Robert Eggers is enjoying a stirring run with Nosferatu, which ranks fourth on $6.8m for $81.8m after three sessions through Focus features and is his biggest ever hit internationally on $53.9m. Disney’s Moana 2 rounds out the top five on $6.5m for 434.9m after seven weekends.
Universal’s Wicked in sixth place has reached $458.9m after eight, and Searchlight Pictures’ A Complete Unknown in seventh stands at $50.8m after three. A24’s erotic drama Babygirl, directed by Halina Reijn and starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, and Antonio Banderas, added $3m from 1,887 for a strong $21.7m. It ranks eighth after three weekends.
Roadside Attractions opened The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis at number 10 on $1.5m from 870 theatres.
A24’s The Brutalist, directed by Golden Globes winner and Directors Guild of America nominee Brady Corbet, expanded from eight to 68 in its fourth weekend, earning $1.4m to raise the early running total to a promising $2.7m. It ranks eleventh and will expand into a limited nationwide footprint next weekend, with a wider expansion set for January 24 including nationwide Imax locations.
Bleecker Street opened Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths at number 20 on $165,625 from 20 sites. That was considerably ahead of the $151,971 lifetime total through Amazon Studios of his last release, Peterloo, in 2018, and some way ahead of the $109,000 debut of Mr. Turner through Sony Pictures Classics in 2014.
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