Sure, it’s the middle of January, and thus the doldrums of winter at the box office. But in the modern film industry, where tentpoles are launched every month, January 18 is the perfect time to release the trilogy-ending superhero film from a popular director that ends a story that began almost 20 years ago. So, as a surprise to exactly no one, “Glass” debuted this weekend and easily won the domestic box office. But it’s not the massive debut that everyone was predicted.
Debuting at #1, M. Night Shyamalan’s highly-anticipated “Glass” shattered the competition (yeah, that pun is a stretch, I must admit) with an opening of $40.6 million. Based on the fact that the Blumhouse film only carries a reported $20 million production budget (minus the obvious advertising), a $40.6 million start is pretty good. The film will easily turn a profit in the coming weeks and will no doubt secure Shyamalan yet another film in the future. However, the folks at Universal are not ecstatic, by any means.
Coming into the weekend, the studio was predicting a solid $50 million opening, with third-party analysts thinking it could go as high as $70 million. Clearly, that was a bit too bullish, as the film debuted almost exactly the same as the 2017 film, “Split,” which paved the way for this third film in the “Unbreakable” trilogy. In fact, the $40 million opening is only $10 million above the $30 million that “Unbreakable” opened to way back in 2000. It’s apparent that there’s really a…glass ceiling for the Eastrail 177 Trilogy.
Naysaying aside, there’s still one more day left in the weekend, as Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the US, and an extra day off for many. We could be looking at a solid $50 million-ish by the end of Monday. Worldwide, the lesser domestic gross means that “Glass” currently sits at just under $90 million globally. Again, Universal isn’t crying about this, but the studio sure does wish it could have crossed the $100 million mark.
As for the future of “Glass,” that’s still to be determined. The reason the film even was an option was that “Split” had such great box office legs in 2017. However, when compared to “Split,” “Glass” is falling far behind in two key areas – critics and audience reaction. As for the critics, “Glass” is receiving generally terrible reviews (especially when you take out those superhero-loving sources) with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 36%, which puts it even behind the 53% of “Escape Room.” CinemaScore isn’t much better, as “Glass” scored a B with audiences. Compared to the B+ of “Split,” it wouldn’t be crazy to say that “Glass” could end up with less positive word-of-mouth. For comparison’s sake, a B CinemaScore puts the latest Shyamalan flick on par with the likes of “Escape Room” (again), “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” and “Robin Hood.” Not the best company, as far as box office is concerned.
But enough of “Glass,” for the time being. The real success of the weekend falls with “Dragon Ball Super: Broly.” Yes, really. The animated film found its audience in only 467 theaters, earning an astonishing $10.7 million. For those keeping track, that comes out to a superb $22,821 Per Theater Average (PTA), which is more than double that of “Glass.” Obviously, this is an incredible success for a film that many of you probably didn’t even know was hitting theaters.
This weekend was also notable for its strong holds from previous hits. Last week’s #1, “The Upside” only dropped -23% for another great weekend of $15.7 million. The Kevin Hart film seems to be taking advantage of the slower box office month and positive word-of-mouth, despite terrible reviews. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” in its 6th weekend, only dropped -19.8% for a solid $7.3 million. This is great news for those of us that have been rooting for the animated film to score better box office. And for another film we’re rooting for, “Bumblebee” has been boosted by a strong China run, with a new global box office of $412 million, inching it ever so closer to profitability.
LISTEN: Is This Why We Can’t Have Nice Things? The December 2018 Box Office Post-Mortem [Podcast]
Now, we don’t want to kick a film while its down, but Keanu Reeve’s “Replicas” had a catastrophic second weekend. Not much of a surprise, sure, but even with the terrible reviews, bad marketing, and generally ill-advised theatrical run, no one wants to see “Replicas” suffer this badly. The film dropped -81.1% and out of the top 10 (barely in the top 20). This is bad enough for the second-worst drop ever for a film that debuted in over 2,000 theaters. The only film to do worse is the 2003 film, “Gigli.”
And since we can’t talk about the 2019 box office without even mentioning “Aquaman,” the DC superhero fish man movie finally crossed another milestone, with a domestic total of $304 million.
Next weekend is highlighted by two major debuts, Joe Cornish’s “The Kid Who Would Be King” and the Matthew McConaughey/Anne Hathaway thriller “Serenity.”
Here’s the top 10 for January 18 – January 20:
1. Glass – $40.6M (Debut)
2. The Upside – $15.7M ($44M Overall)
3. Dragon Ball Super: Broly – $10.7M (Debut)
4. Aquaman – $10.3M ($304M)
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – $7.3M ($158M)
6. A Dog’s Way Home – $7.1M ($21M)
7. Escape Room – $5.3M ($40.7M)
8. Mary Poppins Returns – $5.2M ($159M)
9. Bumblebee – $4.7M ($116M)
10. On the Basis of Sex – $4M ($17M)