Box Office Update: Wonka wins while Night Swim sinks

In our Thursday predictions we said that despite most horror films being critic proof, the new James Wan/ Jason Blum collaboration Night Swim would (forgive the pun) sink or swim based on its reviews. Well later that day reviews began flooding in and they were not great. From critics calling it cliche to our own Tyler Nichols giving it a 4/10 and calling it “terrible on top of more bad” which is a line I will steal from him for future use!

Night Swim doesn’t seem to be one of those horror films that has the juice to prove those reviews wrong, with what is looking like a debut just over $11 million and a second place finish at the box office. What’s worse is that the film has garnered an absolutely horrible 40% audience score. To put that into perspective, the movie The Room, widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, has a 47% audience score. Even the film you all voted as the worst movie of 2023, The Flash, has an audience score of 83%. 

With those numbers, you can expect word of mouth to sink this one (that was actually an unintended pun!) Night Swim won’t be the runaway smash hit that the horror power duo had last year with M3GAN. Of course there is a silver lining, and that is the fact that Blumhouse always keep their budgets in check and this one has a reported budget in the $15 million range, so even with a less than desirable opening and likely strong week to week drops, Night Swim still has the potential to eek out a profit when all is said and done.

So with Night Swim not starting 2024 off right, what movie is landing in first place? It will be the big holiday champ Wonka with an additional $12 million added to its solid domestic take of over $150 million with its worldwide total hitting around $400 million. This was the movie of the holidays that brought families in throughout the season. Deservedly so as the film is a genuine crowd pleaser with great songs and a strong performance by Timothée Chalamet who has proven his talent in pretty much every genre. You can check out Chris Bumbray’s 7/10 review here.

Third place will likely go to the animated birds of Migration as it continues its strong run with a take in the $10-$11 million range. If Night Swim takes a dive in its Saturday and Sunday numbers, we could see Migration step up to that second place spot, although a massive snow storm in the Northeast part of the United States may keep some families from heading to the theaters this weekend. 

Fourth place will likely go to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom with around $10 million in receipts as it crawls towards the $100 million mark. James Wan is having a tough time at the box office these past few weeks, luckily he has a chance to right that ship with no less than 21 projects currently in development.

Fifth place is going to the surprise hit Anyone But You as it looks to add around $10 million this weekend which would represent an increase in week to week sales. That is pretty good for any movie let alone an R rated comedy with two up and coming stars that has been out for three weeks. While sixth place looks to go to the uplifting George Clooney directed true story The Boys in the Boat with around $5 million in ticket sales. This movie will likely find its audience on home video because it is a genuinely good and inspiring film about a sport I bet many of us don’t know much about.

Do you have plans on heading to theaters this weekend? If so, let us know what you plan on seeing (or already have seen). And don’t forget to check back with us tomorrow when we have a full rundown on this weekend’s box office numbers.