Weekend Box Office: Madame Web plunges, and Drive Away Dolls runs out of gas

The final weekend box office numbers are in, and Bob Marley: One Love, the crowd-pleasing biopic, continues to do well, with an estimated gross of $13.5 million over the weekend. It dropped a comparatively modest 53% at the box office thanks to strong word-of-mouth (although the hold was less than I thought in my predictions). It’s well on its way to north of $100 million domestically.

However, for holdovers, the picture was much less rosy for Madame Web, which plunged to fourth place with a 61% drop. Now, it should be said that the drop isn’t as severe as the ones faced by The Marvels (78%) and Morbius (74%) in their second weekends, although both movies opened far stronger than Madame Web did. With a $6 million weekend and a $35.4 million total, it seems unlikely this film will gross the $45 million mark, a disaster for a big-budget superhero film.

The Dakota Johnson vehicle was soundly beaten in its second weekend by another Sony film, the anime Demon Slayer: To The Hashira Training, which made $11.575 million this weekend and posted (by far) the best per-screen average, with close to $6k a screen. These anime releases tend to be front-loaded, but even still, that’s a solid number. The faith-based Ordinary Angels did softer numbers than expected, with a three-day haul of $6.5 million, a surprise given the A+ CinemaScore rating. However, this Hilary Swank/ Alan Ritchson movie may have legs and play well all the way through March. It’s a marathon and not a sprint for Christian movies at the box office.

Illumination’s Migration also showed some strong legs at the box office, with $3 million over the weekend. After a soft Christmas opening, which saw it get trounced by Wonka, the film was legged out to north of $120 million domestically. Argylle came in sixth place with a $2.8 million weekend, with it losing over 500 screens, meaning its time in theaters is pretty much over. With a $41 million domestic total, it’s doubtful this will crack $50 million. Expect a quick release to Apple TV+, with the company financing the $200 million spy flick. 

Next weekend sees the release of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. That film’s star, Timothee Chalamet’s last big hit, Wonka, had another strong showing, earning over $2.5 million, with it now creeping up on a $215 million domestic total – which is terrific for this family gem (it was a lot better than any of us expected, wasn’t it?). 

The weekend’s other big new release, Drive Away Dolls, directed by Ethan Coen of the Coen Bros, totally whiffed at the box office, with a $2.4 million total and a horrible per-screen average of just over $1k. People didn’t seem to care for this star-studded, wannabe midnight movie. Jason Statham’s sleeper hit, The Beekeeper, did $1.9 million, with it likely to pass $65 million domestically by next weekend. Finally, the big-screen release of the Christian TV show, The Chosen, fell to tenth place with a $1.795 million total, which isn’t bad for a movie you can stream for free online.

Did you see anything this weekend? Let us know in the comments!