Weekend Box Office: Magic Mike outdances Titanic

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us and as we all gear up for tonight’s big game between the NFL’s number 1 defense (Philadelphia Eagles) and number 1 offense (Kansas City Chiefs), allow us to dive into this weekend’s box office results where Magic Mike’s Last Dance took first place with a pretty underwhelming $8.2 million. I guess there is no way to sugar coat it, I was WAY off in my predictions! I thought this was a highly anticipated movie that fans would rally behind, especially when you consider it wasn’t originally meant to get a theatrical release. With a $40 million budget and an estimated $20 million in marketing costs it doesn’t seem likely this trilogy capper will break even at the box office. Add to that the fact that this one is the worst reviewed of the three films (with our own Chris Bumbray giving it a 5/10). But again I must sing the praises of Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav who sees the importance in a theatrical release even if it is just used as advertising for its eventual streaming release where a “theatrical” movie has more cachet than one just dumped there from the start.

It does seem Warner’s may have left some money on the table with this one as it appears they didn’t fully commit to a wide release, only releasing on 1500 screens which saw some exhibitors who wanted to book the film in their theaters unable to because it was already booked at another local theater. The good news for Magic Mike is that despite having the worst reviews of the franchise by critics, it actually has the best audience score of the three (Magic Mike had a 60%, Magic Mike XXL had a 65% while Magic Mike’s Last Dance currently has a 75%). All eyes will be on the next film meant for streaming, only to get a big screen push by David Zaslav when Evil Dead Rises hits screens on April 21.

Second place belongs to the blue Na’vi of Pandora with Avatar: The Way of Water taking in $6.8 million this weekend. It seems people are getting in their last viewings of this film in premium screens as next week they lose them to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. What more can be said about this behemoth of a film? When you put something worth experiencing on the big screen, people will come which I hear is the tagline for the new Field of Dreams movie! 

James Cameron rules Third place as well with the 25th Anniversary re-release of Titanic with an estimated $6.4 million. Those numbers don’t quite hit the same highs as the last time this 3D film was released in theaters (that opened with $17.2 million in April 2012 to coincide with the 100 year anniversary of the ship’s sinking). If you haven’t experienced Titanic in 3D, I must say it is one of the best 3D conversions I have ever seen and definitely worth the price to go experience on the big screen again.

Coming in fourth place is the women of 80 For Brady with an estimated $6 million losing 53% of its first week audience. Paramount hit a home run with their “throwback” pricing which saw tickets for this one sell for nearly half off a normal ticket price which helped entice trepidatious audience members who couldn’t pass up a deal to return to theaters. I can’t wait for the sequel Menopause For Montana!

M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin comes in fifth place with $5.5 million which represents a 61% drop off from its opening. Shyamalan movies seem to be big events in the lead up to their release and then quickly fall off the radar. He is a talented filmmaker with a unique style and he has earned the reputation of a filmmaker whose films should be seen immediately as to avoid all spoilers. The problem with that is once you’ve seen the film, they don’t usually have the same repeat viewing as something like an Avatar has. I will say that I found Knock at the Cabin to be a worthwhile film, even if I did leave the theater feeling a bit unfulfilled, and that seems to be the general consensus from what I have read. Although our own Chris Bumbray did give it a solid 8/10 rating, so as I always say, if the movie looked interesting to you at all, it is worth heading theaters to check out.

Sixth place looks to be the little sequel that could as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish continues its utter dominance at the box office adding another $5.5 million (which is the same estimate for Knock at the Cabin which means when final numbers are released on Monday, Puss in Boots could potentially finish ahead of the M. Night Shyamalan thriller.) I have absolutely no idea why no other studio put up a family film to compete with this movie as it has had the family market entirely to itself for around two months. With another month and a half until the next family film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is released on April 7, this one should continue to have small drop offs the next few weeks.

The bottom half of the chart is filled with your holdovers such as A Man Called Otto which is continuing its impressive run with $2.62 million added to its cash box while the all on a computer screen thriller Missing comes in eighth place with $2.6 million followed by the killer doll horror hit M3GAN with an additional $2.3 million added to its impressive $90.9 million running total. Rounding out the top ten is the Gerard Butler old school action film Plane with $1.1 million. Sadly this one was a bit of an under-perfomer with just $30.7 accumulated through five weeks, but hopefully it finds its audience on home video because it really was a solid throwback action film.

Did you make it to theaters this weekend? If so let us know what you saw in the comments section and don’t forget to check out this weeks poll where we ask what your Favorite Football Movie is.