The Marksman: Liam Neeson holds the weekend box office

Neeson keeps his sights on #1

The latest Liam Neeson action movie maintained control of the continually dwindling box office this weekend as THE MARKSMAN again took first place with an estimated $2.03 million.

The PG-13 thriller from distributor Open Road (who also released Neeson's HONEST THIEF last October) dropped by 35% from its opening last weekend, giving the movie a ten-day domestic total of $6.09 million.

Directed by Robert Lorenz (TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE), the movie about a retired Marine mixing it up with the Mexican cartel reportedly cost around $23 million.

The rest of the chart remained fairly similar to last weekend, only with diminishing returns. As the most family-friendly option available, Universal's PG-rated sequel THE CROODS: A NEW AGE continued to do relatively decent pandemic business with $1.82 million over its ninth weekend in theaters, even while it has also been available through VOD since mid-December.

The animated DreamWorks movie now has a domestic total of $41.8 million, and a worldwide total of nearly $140 million, on a reported cost of $65 million.

In third place was the Warner Bros. superhero sequel WONDER WOMAN 1984 with $1.6 million. The PG-13 follow-up has a domestic total of $37.7 million and $148 million worldwide on its fifth weekend in theaters. The $200 million movie also disappears from the studio's HBO Max streaming platform today.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson's videogame adaptation MONSTER HUNTER was in fourth place with $820,000, giving the $60 million Milla Jovovich action movie a domestic total of $10.1 million and $21.4 million worldwide after six weekends.

In fifth place was the Tom Hanks period drama NEWS OF THE WORLD with $810,000 on its fifth weekend. Director Paul Greengrass' PG-13 Western has a domestic total of $9.6 million, on a reported cost of $38 million.

The R-rated psychological thriller FATALE was in sixth place with $415,000, for a domestic total of $5.2 million after six weekends. The R-rated Lionsgate release with Hilary Swank and Michael Ealy is also currently available via VOD.

In seventh place was the R-rated revenge movie PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN with $400,000. The Universal release (through their Focus Features) has a domestic total of $3.97 million on its fifth weekend.

Opening in eighth place was the R-rated drama OUR FRIEND with $250,000 on 534 screens.

Distributed (appropriately) by Gravitas, the fact-based tearjerker involves a man (Jason Segel) assisting a family (Casey Affleck and Dakota Johnson) when the wife is diagnosed with cancer. You can check out the JoBlo review HERE.

Still chugging along in ninth place was the PG-rated Robert De Niro comedy THE WAR WITH GRANDPA, now on the chart for 16 consecutive weekends, while the update of PINOCCHIO finished out the list.

Unsurprisingly with the ongoing global virus, studios have started to slide their major upcoming releases around the calendar. Over the past week, THE KING'S MAN, MORBIUS, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE, UNCHARTED, A QUIET PLACE PART II and the highly anticipated NO TIME TO DIE (among others) have all been pushed to deeper in the year or out to 2022.

So far, Disney is sticking to the current release dates for BLACK WIDOW (May 7) and SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (July 9), but it remains to be seen whether any further delays would impact the structured continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially now that story impacts from the various Disney+ TV series have to be factored in.

As it stands, the Denzel Washington serial-killer thriller THE LITTLE THINGS will arrive next weekend.

What upcoming sequel are you most excited for? VOTE HERE!