The weekend after Oscar nominations is always interesting at the box office. With common sense dictating that the films being named by the Academy as the best of the year will get a bump at the box office, analysts are always curious about which films will spark renewed interest from film fans and which can’t even benefit from a bit more notoriety. This weekend also had the added bonus of a highly divisive adult thriller, a critically-acclaimed kids film from an up and coming director, and a flurry of holiday leftovers still staking a claim. So yeah, quite a bit to talk about this weekend.
Right off the bat, we have to cover the “Aquaman” portion of the box office report. We really can’t seem to escape the fish man movie as it continues to earn milestone after milestone. However, this latest milestone might just be the most meaningful for Warner Bros. well over a month after its been in theaters, “Aquaman” has officially passed Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” to become the biggest superhero film ever for WB, with a worldwide gross of $1.09 billion. As we talked about last week, this news just keeps adding zeros to the paycheck that WB will have to write James Wan to encourage him to revisit the franchise for a sequel.
Next, we have to talk about the newcomers to the box office – “The Kid Who Would Be King” and “Serenity.” The former is a quality kids film that we coined “an instant classic” from director Joe Cornish, marking the first film from him in eight years. With a relatively modest production budget of only $60 million, Fox was hoping that ‘King’ would be able to pull in a decent opening weekend. However, a $7.25 million opening weekend (good enough for #4 domestically) is not what the studio had in mind. That being said, children’s films normally have decent legs, and with a B+ CinemaScore, it would appear that audiences were pleased. The next few weeks will truly tell the tale of “The Kid Who Would Be King.”
READ MORE: ‘The Kid Who Would Be King’ Is An Inspiring, Instant Classic [Review]
“Serenity,” on the other hand, seems dead in the water. The Matthew McConaughey/Anne Hathaway thriller divided critics, with a twist ending that is apparently make or break. The current Rotten Tomatoes score for the film is 21%, showing that the buzz coming into the weekend was not great. In its first weekend, “Serenity” earned a decidedly OKAY $4.8 million. With a budget of only $25 million, that wouldn’t necessarily be as catastrophic as you might think. But, combine the soft opening with a dreadful D+ CinemaScore, which shows audiences hated the film as much as critics, then you’re left with a movie that will struggle to keep its place in the top 10 next weekend.
Last week’s winner, “Glass,” is showing a little cause for alarm, with a -59% drop to $19 million in its second weekend. Not terrible, by any stretch, the M. Night Shyamalan film’s second-weekend drop pales in comparison to the -35% drop that “Split” had just two years ago. Still highly profitable, “Glass” is a winner for Universal and Blumhouse, but they can probably calm any talk of the film beating “Split’s” totals.
Now, as we mentioned, the Oscar nominations were announced last week, and with that, some of the dramas nominated for Best Picture did see some big increases from last week. “Green Book” seems to be the big box office winner out of the Oscar nominations grouping. With an increase of over 1,500 theaters, the film jumped back in the top 10 with a weekend gross of $5.4 million, 150% better than last weekend. “The Favourite” also saw a much bigger weekend than last with a 201% increase and a weekend total of $2.56 million. “A Star is Born” gained another 777 theaters, and increased 107% to $1.26 million.
The news isn’t nearly as good for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” With five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, the Queen biopic only increased 7.6% for a weekend total of $2.5 million. Definitely not a bad 13th weekend at the box office, but when you compare the increases for other films, particularly “A Star is Born,” which has a similar domestic total, it would appear that perhaps the negative controversy surrounding the film is affecting audiences’ interest.
Next weekend is a bit of a down weekend for the box office. The only major release is the thriller “Miss Bala,” and there’s honestly not much buzz about the film coming into next Friday. Perhaps word-of-mouth will build over the next five days, and the Latinx crowd will come out in full force (as they have been known to do), but at this point, it’s hard seeing “Miss Bala” doing much of anything in the top 10.
Here’s the entire domestic top 10 for January 25 to January 27:
1. Glass – $19M ($73.6M Overall)
2. The Upside – $12.2M ($63M)
3. Aquaman – $7.35M ($317M)
4. The Kid Who Would Be King – $7.25M (Debut)
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – $6.15M ($169M)
6. Green Book – $5.4M ($49M)
7. A Dog’s Way Home – $5.2M ($30.8M)
8. Serenity – $4.8M (Debut)
9. Escape Room – $4.3M ($48M)
10. Dragon Ball Super: Broly – $3.6M ($29M)