‘Uncharted’ & ‘Dog’ To Stay On Top In Weekend Two
Last weekend saw some solid over-performances from Uncharted and Dog in what was 2022’s best grossing weekend yet, coming in 32% ahead of the previous 2022 weekend best (Jan 14-17 when Scream opened and knocked Spider-Man: No Way Home from the top spot). Those two films will likely come in the top two slots again, ahead of what look like soft openings for this weekend’s newcomers Studio 666 and Cyrano. The lack of significant new content may lead to a box-office drop that makes this weekend the lowest grossing of February and one of the lowest of the year (though much depends on how well Uncharted holds), but not to fret – The Batman opens next weekend and could be one of the top grossers of the past few years.
Uncharted, at $55.5 million through Tuesday and pulling in weekday numbers that top most recent films’ weekend numbers, will finish its second weekend as the top grossing new release of the year, surpassing Scream’s $77.5 million haul. While these aren’t exactly Spider-Man/MCU numbers, it is still quite the handoff from one Sony film starring Tom Holland to another, and the synergy of the two has somehow led to No Way Home holding it down in third place in its tenth weekend with practically no box office dip from its ninth weekend.
Uncharted’s B+ CinemaScore, though solid, doesn’t indicate that it will have the word of mouth that led to the incredible holds we’ve seen from No Way Home and Sing 2, which both received the highly coveted A+. Nonetheless, the video-game-adaptation/adventure-film will likely benefit from a lack of competition, not to mention Tom Holland mania. Sony is already celebrating the film’s box office success, referring to Uncharted as “a new hit movie franchise for the company,” so unless it totally nosedives in its second weekend, we can probably expect a sequel to be in the planning.
Dog should come in second place once again. The word of mouth is positive, with an A- CinemaScore and 75% Tomatometer, so the Channing Tatum/canine buddy flick is expected to hold well.
The only fully wide newcomer is Open Road’s Studio 666, a horror-comedy starring the Foo Fighters. It is the first narrative film for the Dave Grohl fronted band which has previously been the subject of documentaries. Grohl came up with the story about the group’s efforts to record an album in a haunted house, and he stars in the film alongside his bandmates as exaggerated versions of themselves getting terrorized by demonic forces. It is at 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, and though many critics are praising the film, it seems to be a for-Foo-fans-only affair with little chance of breaking out with horror audiences.
Going semi-wide is United Artists’ Cyrano, coming two months after its one-week Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles in December. It is the latest of the many film adaptations of "Cyrano de Bergerac," this time from director Joe Wright and based on the stage musical by Erica Schmidt, who also wrote the screenplay. Peter Dinklage (who happens to be Schmidt’s husband and starred in the stage show) stars as the titular lovelorn poet, with Haley Bennett as Roxanne and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian.
Cyrano is very much in Wright’s wheelhouse of period piece adaptations which have mostly given him commercial and critical success, and he has been less consistently successful when he strayed from that. That said, Wright’s period films play better abroad while his contemporary ones are actually bigger stateside. Cyrano seems unlikely to break that pattern, and though interest in the film on IMDb is solid, it is hard to say if it can gain traction in the U.S. without much awards buzz. It is one of the few Oscar season hopefuls to actually come out after the Oscar nominations (thanks to last minute Omicron-variant related delays), but any hope of the ticket sales getting an Oscar boost is gone. Despite being nominated for Best Actor and Best Picture Golden Globes in the musical or comedy section and earning a strong 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film mostly came up short in its Oscar noms, garnering just Best Costume Design, a category that doesn’t exactly pull in audiences.
Elsewhere in limited releases, we’re actually seeing some decent traffic on IMDb for the 50th anniversary re-release of The Godfather. Paramount is showing Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic mafia film in a new restoration that will be playing exclusively in Dolby Cinema theaters at AMC. Sounds like an offer we can’t refuse.
Uncharted, at $55.5 million through Tuesday and pulling in weekday numbers that top most recent films’ weekend numbers, will finish its second weekend as the top grossing new release of the year, surpassing Scream’s $77.5 million haul. While these aren’t exactly Spider-Man/MCU numbers, it is still quite the handoff from one Sony film starring Tom Holland to another, and the synergy of the two has somehow led to No Way Home holding it down in third place in its tenth weekend with practically no box office dip from its ninth weekend.
Uncharted’s B+ CinemaScore, though solid, doesn’t indicate that it will have the word of mouth that led to the incredible holds we’ve seen from No Way Home and Sing 2, which both received the highly coveted A+. Nonetheless, the video-game-adaptation/adventure-film will likely benefit from a lack of competition, not to mention Tom Holland mania. Sony is already celebrating the film’s box office success, referring to Uncharted as “a new hit movie franchise for the company,” so unless it totally nosedives in its second weekend, we can probably expect a sequel to be in the planning.
Dog should come in second place once again. The word of mouth is positive, with an A- CinemaScore and 75% Tomatometer, so the Channing Tatum/canine buddy flick is expected to hold well.
The only fully wide newcomer is Open Road’s Studio 666, a horror-comedy starring the Foo Fighters. It is the first narrative film for the Dave Grohl fronted band which has previously been the subject of documentaries. Grohl came up with the story about the group’s efforts to record an album in a haunted house, and he stars in the film alongside his bandmates as exaggerated versions of themselves getting terrorized by demonic forces. It is at 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, and though many critics are praising the film, it seems to be a for-Foo-fans-only affair with little chance of breaking out with horror audiences.
Going semi-wide is United Artists’ Cyrano, coming two months after its one-week Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles in December. It is the latest of the many film adaptations of "Cyrano de Bergerac," this time from director Joe Wright and based on the stage musical by Erica Schmidt, who also wrote the screenplay. Peter Dinklage (who happens to be Schmidt’s husband and starred in the stage show) stars as the titular lovelorn poet, with Haley Bennett as Roxanne and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian.
Cyrano is very much in Wright’s wheelhouse of period piece adaptations which have mostly given him commercial and critical success, and he has been less consistently successful when he strayed from that. That said, Wright’s period films play better abroad while his contemporary ones are actually bigger stateside. Cyrano seems unlikely to break that pattern, and though interest in the film on IMDb is solid, it is hard to say if it can gain traction in the U.S. without much awards buzz. It is one of the few Oscar season hopefuls to actually come out after the Oscar nominations (thanks to last minute Omicron-variant related delays), but any hope of the ticket sales getting an Oscar boost is gone. Despite being nominated for Best Actor and Best Picture Golden Globes in the musical or comedy section and earning a strong 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film mostly came up short in its Oscar noms, garnering just Best Costume Design, a category that doesn’t exactly pull in audiences.
Elsewhere in limited releases, we’re actually seeing some decent traffic on IMDb for the 50th anniversary re-release of The Godfather. Paramount is showing Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic mafia film in a new restoration that will be playing exclusively in Dolby Cinema theaters at AMC. Sounds like an offer we can’t refuse.
