‘Uncharted’ Is Unmatched In Quiet Weekend Ahead Of ‘The Batman’ Release
It is the quiet before the bat storm, and as we are one week out from the latest reboot of the Batman franchise, no big studio thought it wise to go wide with any of their titles. The top five is identical to last weekend, and the second weekend holdovers Uncharted and Dog both held on strong with less than 50% drops. The only fully wide new release was the Foo Fighters’ horror/comedy Studio 666 from Open Road, but with just $1.5 million it fell short of the top five, and the other notable newcomer, United Artists’ Cyrano, was right behind it with $1.4 million from 797 theaters.
As expected, Sony’s adventure film Uncharted took the top spot with ease in its second weekend, grossing an additional $23.3 million, roughly 10% of that coming from IMAX. With a 47% drop, the video game adaptation held stronger in its second week than any of 2021’s $50+ million openers (the best hold of those was Shang-Chi which dropped 54%). There are a multitude of possible factors here, considering the game’s popularity and minimal competition, but it is also looking more and more likely that Tom Holland is a bonafide box office draw, at least if the surrounding elements are right.
Uncharted is now at $83.4 million domestic and $226 million worldwide, having brought in an additional $35 million this weekend from international markets, which dropped just 35%. It may see a greater decline when The Batman opens, but the bright, sunny world of Uncharted could just be the perfect counterprogramming to the dark, gloomy vision of Gotham City. In the meantime, the gross propped up the weekend’s $63 million overall box office, which ended up being the third best of the year, a welcome surprise considering the dearth of new content.
Dog held even stronger than Uncharted, dropping a mere 32%. Audiences kept wagging their tails for the Channing Tatum film (which he starred in as well as co-directed with Magic Mike scribe Reid Carolin) in its second weekend, giving it an additional $10.1 million. It may be running below the disappointing box office of Magic Mike XXL, but with a 10 day cume of $30.9 million it is already one of the most successful comedies and the most successful dramedy since before the pandemic. It bodes well for Tatum’s upcoming comedy The Lost City, which he co-stars in alongside Sandra Bullock, though that film has a higher break-even hurdle to clear than the $15 million Dog. Like Uncharted, Dog could continue to play well through March as counterprogramming to The Batman.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, in third place, took its biggest tumble percentage wise in over a month, but even that was a small number (down only 23.8%) as it pulled in $5.8 million, a noteworthy feat in its 11th weekend. Now at $780 million, it looks like No Way Home could actually swing its way past $800 million.
Fourth place is Death on the Nile, which dropped 31% for a third weekend gross of $4.5 million. It is a good hold, but the raw numbers are too small to celebrate. Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation has a domestic cume of $32.8 million and a global cume of $101 million against a $90 million budget, and it doesn’t look like it has the steam to chug along much further. The film is seriously underperforming compared to its predecessor, Murder on the Orient Express, which grossed $353 million worldwide. Even in China, where Nile opened last weekend, the follow-up is lagging behind previous installment, opening to only $5.8 million compared to Orient Express’ $18.9 million cume.
Jackass Forever came in fifth with a 39% drop and a three-day total of $3.2 million. Its four week cume is $52.1 million, and it does not seem likely that it can catch up to Jackass: The Movie (which grossed $64.3 million domestic and $79.5 million worldwide). Even if it ends up the lowest grossing film in the series though, it is still a win for Paramount given its $10 million budget, and it is the second highest grossing live-action comedy of the pandemic era after the big-budget, effects-heavy Free Guy.
Sing 2 impressively came in 6th place in its tenth weekend with $2.1 million, a small number but enough to get it past the $150 million line. It also crossed the milestones of $200 million internationally and $350 worldwide all in the same weekend. It still doesn’t hold a candle to the first film’s $634 million global cume, but it remains one of the pandemic’s biggest successes.
A little further down the chart we finally get one of the weekend’s newcomers. Studio 666 came in 8th place with a small $1.5 million. The horror-comedy starring the Foo Fighters has the band play fictionalized versions of themselves as they record an album in a haunted house. The reviews indicate that it is strictly for the fans, and the box office reflects the limited audience for the film.
Cyrano was narrowly behind in number nine, grossing just $1.4 million. United Artists launched the Joe Wright directed musical take on "Cyrano de Bergerac" in 797 locations, but there weren’t a ton of takers for the awards season movie that failed to garner many major nominations (as far as the Oscars go it is just Best Costume Design). It is also looking unlikely that it would make up for a soft domestic gross with a strong overseas gross. Internationally it brought in only $1 million from 9 markets, which included U.K. where Wright’s period films often play well.
Outside the top ten, we have the weekend's best per theater average ($5,872) with the old but gold The Godfather, which grossed $916k this weekend. Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia classic got a new restoration for its 50th anniversary and it played exclusively in 156 Dolby Cinema auditoriums at AMC. Internationally it grossed an additional $1.4 million from 27 markets.
As expected, Sony’s adventure film Uncharted took the top spot with ease in its second weekend, grossing an additional $23.3 million, roughly 10% of that coming from IMAX. With a 47% drop, the video game adaptation held stronger in its second week than any of 2021’s $50+ million openers (the best hold of those was Shang-Chi which dropped 54%). There are a multitude of possible factors here, considering the game’s popularity and minimal competition, but it is also looking more and more likely that Tom Holland is a bonafide box office draw, at least if the surrounding elements are right.
Uncharted is now at $83.4 million domestic and $226 million worldwide, having brought in an additional $35 million this weekend from international markets, which dropped just 35%. It may see a greater decline when The Batman opens, but the bright, sunny world of Uncharted could just be the perfect counterprogramming to the dark, gloomy vision of Gotham City. In the meantime, the gross propped up the weekend’s $63 million overall box office, which ended up being the third best of the year, a welcome surprise considering the dearth of new content.
Dog held even stronger than Uncharted, dropping a mere 32%. Audiences kept wagging their tails for the Channing Tatum film (which he starred in as well as co-directed with Magic Mike scribe Reid Carolin) in its second weekend, giving it an additional $10.1 million. It may be running below the disappointing box office of Magic Mike XXL, but with a 10 day cume of $30.9 million it is already one of the most successful comedies and the most successful dramedy since before the pandemic. It bodes well for Tatum’s upcoming comedy The Lost City, which he co-stars in alongside Sandra Bullock, though that film has a higher break-even hurdle to clear than the $15 million Dog. Like Uncharted, Dog could continue to play well through March as counterprogramming to The Batman.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, in third place, took its biggest tumble percentage wise in over a month, but even that was a small number (down only 23.8%) as it pulled in $5.8 million, a noteworthy feat in its 11th weekend. Now at $780 million, it looks like No Way Home could actually swing its way past $800 million.
Fourth place is Death on the Nile, which dropped 31% for a third weekend gross of $4.5 million. It is a good hold, but the raw numbers are too small to celebrate. Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation has a domestic cume of $32.8 million and a global cume of $101 million against a $90 million budget, and it doesn’t look like it has the steam to chug along much further. The film is seriously underperforming compared to its predecessor, Murder on the Orient Express, which grossed $353 million worldwide. Even in China, where Nile opened last weekend, the follow-up is lagging behind previous installment, opening to only $5.8 million compared to Orient Express’ $18.9 million cume.
Jackass Forever came in fifth with a 39% drop and a three-day total of $3.2 million. Its four week cume is $52.1 million, and it does not seem likely that it can catch up to Jackass: The Movie (which grossed $64.3 million domestic and $79.5 million worldwide). Even if it ends up the lowest grossing film in the series though, it is still a win for Paramount given its $10 million budget, and it is the second highest grossing live-action comedy of the pandemic era after the big-budget, effects-heavy Free Guy.
Sing 2 impressively came in 6th place in its tenth weekend with $2.1 million, a small number but enough to get it past the $150 million line. It also crossed the milestones of $200 million internationally and $350 worldwide all in the same weekend. It still doesn’t hold a candle to the first film’s $634 million global cume, but it remains one of the pandemic’s biggest successes.
A little further down the chart we finally get one of the weekend’s newcomers. Studio 666 came in 8th place with a small $1.5 million. The horror-comedy starring the Foo Fighters has the band play fictionalized versions of themselves as they record an album in a haunted house. The reviews indicate that it is strictly for the fans, and the box office reflects the limited audience for the film.
Cyrano was narrowly behind in number nine, grossing just $1.4 million. United Artists launched the Joe Wright directed musical take on "Cyrano de Bergerac" in 797 locations, but there weren’t a ton of takers for the awards season movie that failed to garner many major nominations (as far as the Oscars go it is just Best Costume Design). It is also looking unlikely that it would make up for a soft domestic gross with a strong overseas gross. Internationally it brought in only $1 million from 9 markets, which included U.K. where Wright’s period films often play well.
Outside the top ten, we have the weekend's best per theater average ($5,872) with the old but gold The Godfather, which grossed $916k this weekend. Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia classic got a new restoration for its 50th anniversary and it played exclusively in 156 Dolby Cinema auditoriums at AMC. Internationally it grossed an additional $1.4 million from 27 markets.
