Studios rolled out three new wide releases this weekend, with hopes to breathe life into the late-winter box office. Lionsgate offered ORDINARY ANGELS while Focus Features gave us DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS and Sony and Crunchyroll premiered DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA – TO THE HASHIRA TRAINING.
Unfortunately, none of the newcomers could make it past last weekend’s top movie, BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE, which repeated at #1. The weekend total for all movies in theatres came in at $59.5M, only 73% of the $78.6M from last weekend and 63% of the $94.8M earned last year in the same weekend. The top three movies last year on this weekend were ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA with $32M in its second frame, followed by $23.3M for COCAINE BEAR and $15.9M for JESUS REVOLUTION, both in their opening weekends.
2024 has started on an unfortunate losing streak, with every weekend so far coming in lower than its corresponding weekend in 2023. The opening of DUNE: PART TWO is only a few days away, and everyone will produce the first-weekend win compared with last year.
Finishing in first place for the second weekend in a row was BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE, which earned $13.5M, a decline of 53%. The Paramount production continues to benefit from a 92% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. After 12 days, the biopic of the famous reggae star has earned $71.2M domestic and a very strong $117.3M worldwide.
This is already more than the $70M it cost to produce the movie. While DUNE: PART TWO commands first place next weekend, BOB MARLEY will stay in the top five for most of March, giving it a solid chance of being a profitable project for its backers.
DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA – TO THE HASHIRA TRAINING is the 2024 champion for long titles and also finished in second place for the weekend with $11.6M. This feature is a bundle of two episodes from a popular anime TV series.
This is the second time episodes from the series have been packaged for theatres, following last year’s successful release of DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA – TO THE SWORDSMITH VILLAGE, which earned $10.1M in the U.S. and Canada on its opening weekend from March 3-5, 2023.
This approach of introducing new episodes of a TV series in theatres has also been taken by Fathom Events with their rollout of THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4. Through its second weekend, THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4 EPISODES 4-6 has grossed $7.9M, and when combining this with results from the two-week run of THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4 EPISODES 1-3 the cumulative domestic box office for these TV episodes is $21.8M. At a time when theatres are struggling to measure up to last year’s solid start, any additional source of revenue is appreciated.
Lionsgate’s ORDINARY ANGELS finished in third place with an opening weekend total of $6.5M. This is the story of a struggling hairdresser played by Hilary Swank who finds a renewed sense of purpose after meeting a widowed father played by Alan Ritchson who is caring for his two daughters. His youngest child is critically ill and waiting for a liver transplant and Swank’s character rallies the community to help.
The film is directed by Jon Gunn who also wrote last year’s surprise success JESUS REVOLUTION. Swank is an Academy Award winner for Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004) while Ritchson is currently playing Jack Reacher in the Amazon Prime series REACHER. While reviewers appreciate ORDINARY ANGELS by giving it an 81% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, moviegoers are raving with a stratospheric 99% audience score.
Sony and Marvel’s MADAME WEB finished in fourth place with $6.0M, a decline of 61% from its opening last weekend. After twelve days, this underperforming superhero movie has brought in a meager $35.4M in the domestic market. This is compared to twelve-day totals of $67.6M for Disney’s THE MARVELS and $47.7M for Warner Bros.’ BLUE BEETLE. There is no chance that MADAME WEB will keep pace with those earlier films, even though they were both considered to be disappointments at the time.
Universal and Illumination’s MIGRATION continues its long, fantastic journey with an additional $3.0M, a decline of only 22% in its tenth weekend. The film has logged $120.4M in domestic box office and $264.6M worldwide.
The other new wide opener this weekend was DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS, which finished in a distant eighth place with $2.4M. The screenplay was written by Ethan Coen and his wife Tricia Cooke. For nearly three decades Ethan and his brother Joel Coen have collaborated to create memorable movies including FARGO (1996) and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) among many others.
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS is a comedy that follows Jamie, a broken-hearted free spirit who sets off on a get-well road trip with her painfully shy friend Marian. Their trip takes them to Tallahassee where, as with any good Coen story, things go comically wrong when they cross paths with a series of inept characters.
The film stars Margaret Qualley (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD 2019) and Beanie Feldstein (BOOKSMART 2019). Qualley is the daughter of Andie MacDowell, famous for her roles in GROUNDHOG DAY (1993) and many other film and TV projects from the mid-1980s to the present day.
As is often the case with the Coen brothers’ movies, the supporting cast includes top-tier performers, in this case, Pedro Pascal and Matt Damon. The story was conceived as a trilogy of movies, with DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS as the first chapter.
With a reported budget of $20M, the movie could be profitable if it reaches $50M in worldwide box office. Somewhat unexpectedly, the movie has a much higher score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, at 66%, than it does with audiences, at 36%. After this slow start and a disappointing grade from audiences, we now expect this to be the first, last, and only movie from the planned trilogy.
Where Are We as of 2/22
After the first seven weeks of 2024, the year-to-date box office stands at 83% compared with the same seven weeks in 2023, and 63% compared with those weeks in 2019.
