Updated Holiday Box Office Bob Marley: One Love clears $50 million; Madame Web makes half that

Last Updated on February 21, 2024

UPDATE: The official five-day estimates from studios (via Comscore) are in, with Bob Marley: One Love ending the President’s Day holiday weekend with over $52 million at the domestic box office, much higher than was estimated yesterday. Meanwhile, Madame Web is projected to add $2.6 million to its haul today, meaning it’ll end President’s Day with an estimated $26 million cume, which is exactly half of what the Marley biopic made. Expect lots of Madame Web post-mortem reports in the coming weeks, with it a clear box office misfire for Sony.

ORIGINAL POST:

The weekend results are in, and it looks like Madame Web’s box office take is slightly better than we predicted earlier this week. The superhero film, suffering from terrible word of mouth and awful reviews, eked its way to a second-place finish at the weekend box office with a $15.1 million take. I had it pegged at only $12 million for the weekend, but it looks like business picked up after its underwhelming Valentine’s Day opening. The would-be franchise starter looks to top $23.4 million for the holiday weekend. All told, this is a disastrous opening. By comparison, the same studio’s much-loathed Spider-Verse movie, Morbius, managed to open with $39 million and was considered a giant flop. It’s possible that Madame Web’s entire box office run might not top Morbius’s opening weekend!

Besides Madame Web, the big story was how well Bob Marley: One Love did. The movie topped the weekend box office with $27.7 million, with a mighty $45 million holiday weekend total, paving its way to a potential $100 million finish at the domestic box office. Of course, it depends on how business holds up, but the A-CinemaScore suggests this one won’t be front-loaded. The biopic only earned modestly positive reviews (including one from us), but audiences seemed to disagree. 

Meanwhile, Matthew Vaughn’s big-budget spy flop, Argylle, came in third with $4.72 million for the weekend, which is about a 25% decline since last weekend. Its total so far stands at $36.4 million. It seems unlikely this will cross $45 million domestically, so expect it to drop on Apple TV+ sooner rather than later, with this being one of the company’s biggest productions to date. Who knows? Maybe it’ll do better on streaming.

Given that it’s a holiday weekend, Illuminations’s Migration saw a 27% boost at the box office despite losing a couple hundred screens. The fact is there’s very little out there for kids to see, so audiences are checking out this holiday release, which only did so-so numbers originally. The Christian TV show The Chosen also posted strong numbers, with Fathom releasing episodes 4-6 of the fourth season for a limited run. $3.4 million for a TV show that’s actually streaming for free is really quite good.

The next big movie set to dominate the box office is Dune Part 2, and that film’s star, Timothee Chalamet, saw his holiday hit Wonka get a solid 11% boost at the box office, making $3.4 million in sixth place. The domestic total is now closing in on $210 million.  The Jason Statham actioner, The Beekeeper, also did well in seventh place, with a $3.2 million total, closing in on a total of $60 million gross, which is solid for a modestly budgeted R-rated actioner. 

The rom-com Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, also did well, getting a nice Valentine’s Day boost. It made $2.4 million over the weekend and is closing in on an $85 million finish, which is a great result for a movie like this. It’s a real sleeper hit, proving audiences are hungry for good, old-fashioned date movies. Last weekend’s new release, Lisa Frankenstein, dropped 45% for a ninth-place finish at just over $2 million. This one seems unlikely to cross $10 million domestically, which is a bad result. This horror comedy didn’t seem to catch on. Finally, Land of Bad, an indie war flick starring Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe, managed to crack the top 10 despite playing on just over 1000 screens (about a quarter of what Madame Web is on), making $1.8 million. This isn’t a terrible result for a movie that will likely get more play on streaming.

Next weekend seems quiet, with the faith-based Ordinary Angels the only major release. It does co-star Reacher’s Alan Ritchson, so it might actually post pretty respectable numbers if its intended audience embraces it or if the film manages to crossover to the mainstream. Time will tell.