Box Office Weekend – ‘Glass’ Has Some Cracks, But Remains #1
This week at the box office, Glass remains #1 (with the catch that it might not match Split‘s domestic total), while fellow superhero movies cross a few milestones of note.
The weekend was pretty safely Universal’s to celebrate, with Glass scoring a $19M+ second frame. While that’s a good total, it’s a couple million dollars behind Split at this same point in time, suggesting that the sequel’s total will trail its predecessor in domestic markets in spite of Glass initially outperforming the previous film. To make up for this, Glass seems to be doing a lot better than its predecessor overseas, at least for the time being. But given the $20M production budget, both Universal and Disney (who get the movie’s international gross as part of an agreement to sort out some minor legal headaches with the rights) will both see profit from the conclusion to M. Night Shyamalan’s trilogy of original superhero movies. Meanwhile, Green Book is enjoying a lot of additional attention due to awards buzz, jumping up to the #6 spot on the Top Twelve.
Superheroes continue to stay in focus where the box office is concerned, as Aquaman cleared a massive milestone for DC Films and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is on the cusp of doing so for Sony Pictures Animation. No matter how you spin the numbers, Aquaman is a massive hit for DC Films, surpassing The Dark Knight Rises as the highest-grossing movie based on one of their properties. Suffice to say, that just-confirmed sequel has more than justified its existence by the movie’s insane performance, and the movie ought to clear $1.1B before the end of its run. Since it has yet to open in Japan, there’s an outside chance that it could even clear $1.2B. Meanwhile, Spider-Verse will become Sony Pictures Animation’s #1 film at the domestic box office in a matter of days once it passes Hotel Transylvania 2, and it might even beat that total when adjusted for inflation by the end of next week; like Aquaman, this movie also has yet to open in Japan, which being a market that loves both anime and Spider-Man, is likely to get a kick out of the film.
Both of the week’s new releases tanked at the box office, helped in no small part by really bad Winter weather affecting the Midwest. While Fox’s The Kid Who Would Be King was reviewed well, the movie’s $7M+ comes across as a blip on the radar compared to its $59M(!) budget. Hopefully, it does better in the United Kingdom when it releases there next month, but it’s looking like the King Arthur re-imagining is pretty much history on our side of the pond. The plus side is that the weekend multiplier on the film was pretty great in spite of a weak opening overall, suggesting that the movie may gain a bit of traction (but probably not enough to make the film profitable in its theatrical run). The bigger disaster here has to be Aviron’s Serenity, which at a sub-$5M opening serves as a pair of career worsts for stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. While sold as a promising slow-burn thriller, the movie is not as advertised and has an absolutely bonkers plot twist that the movie beats into the heads of the audience, and audiences didn’t really take kindly to it with a brutal D+ CinemaScore. Those curious to see the $25M movie to figure out what it is probably won’t save Aviron from taking a write-down on the project.
Lastly, I should also take a moment to note that the immensely-successful Dragon Ball Super: Broly is enjoying a pretty solid run for a limited release. An anime movie hasn’t seen these kinds of box office numbers in the United States since the heydays of the anime adaptations of Yu-Gi-Oh! ($19M+) and Pokémon (the top two films in the series grossing $43M+ and $85M+ respectively), and considering that Dragon Ball‘s financial trajectory has been moving upward compared to the film’s predecessor’s Z: Battle of Gods and Z: Resurrection ‘F’, Funimation, Fox, and Toei ought to be thrilled for the future of the series. (And technically, Disney should as well, since they’re buying Fox.)
The Top Twelve box office performances for the three-day weekend can be summarized as follows (bolded titles are new releases):
- Glass (Universal Pictures/Blumhouse Productions) – $19.049M Weekend/$73.589M Total; 52.8% Drop.
- The Upside (STX Films) – $12.24M Weekend/$63.144M Total; 18.4% Drop.
- Aquaman (Warner Bros./DC Films) – $7.25M Weekend/$316.554M Total; 27.8% Drop.
- The Kid Who Would Be King (20th Century Fox) – $7.25M Total.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation) – $6.15M Weekend/$169.04M Total; 18.8% Drop.
- Green Book (Universal Pictures) – $5.413M Weekend/$49.003M Total; 150.1% Rise.
- A Dog’s Way Home (Sony Pictures) – $5.225M Weekend/$30.834M Total; 27.3% Drop.
- Serenity (Aviron) – $4.8M Total.
- Escape Room (Sony Pictures) – $4.275M Weekend/$47.915M Total; 23.8% Drop.
- Dragon Ball Super: Broly (FUNimation Films/20th Century Fox) – $3.6M Weekend/$28.958M Total; 63.3% Drop.
- Mary Poppins Returns (Disney) – $3.113M Weekend/$165.004M Total; 40.3% Drop.
- Bumblebee (Paramount Pictures) – $2.92M Weekend/$121.341M Total; 38.5% Drop.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Mary Poppins Returns, Bumblebee, Aquaman, and Glass are now playing in theaters.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
