Box office: Super Bowl anticipation does little to help ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ on another dead weekend

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
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February continued January’s downturn at the box office, with two new wide releases and a hotly-anticipated Super Bowl Sunday to keep anything from doing particularly well. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Of the two new wide releases, Focus Features’ romantic horror-comedy “Lisa Frankenstein” was probably the most high-profile one, but otherwise, much of the chatter this weekend was about an impending sporting event and whether a certain pop star might attend.

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Even though Matthew Vaughn‘s star-studded action comedy, “Argylle,” took a massive 63% plunge in its second weekend, it still managed to retain first place with a weak $6.5 million, which is back down to the level of the top movies just two weeks ago. It has grossed $28.8 million domestically so far, which isn’t great considering the cost to Apple Studios to buy and release it. It added another $9.4 million internationally this weekend for a global take of $60.1 million so far.

SEE 2023 box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million

Directed by Zelda Williams from a screenplay by Oscar-winner Diablo Cody (“Juno”), the horror-comedy “Lisa Frankenstein” came into the weekend with generally mixed reviews, but a strong cast led by Kathryn Newton (“Freaky”) and Cole Sprouse (“Riverdale”), a premise loosely-based on the Mary Shelley classic, and a release by Focus Features into 3,143 theaters. Those three things should have given it a clear path to a first place opening. Instead, it ended up just making $700,000 in previews and $1.74 million on Friday, leading to an opening weekend estimate of $3.8 million or $1,208 per theater. That put it well behind “Argylle” for second place.

The movie received a semi-decent “B” Cinemascore, which shows that the audiences who went to see the movie liked it generally about as much as critics. Just last week, its was reported that CinemaScore founder Ed Mintz passed away at the age of 83; it was unrelated.

While the top two movies for the weekend were pretty well set, the narrow margin between the five movies that followed makes it likely there may be a shake-up when actual box office is reported on Monday.

Jason Statham‘s action movie “The Beekeeper” remained in third place again with $3.5 million in 3,057 theaters (down 34%) as it brings its domestic total to $54.7 million after five weeks.

UPDATE: Just about every single movie was overestimated on Sunday, and while “The Beekeeper” did take third place, it was followed by “Wonka” and “Migration,” as “The Chosen” dropped to sixth place.

SEE Grab the popcorn and sound off in our movie forums

Next up was Timothée Chalamet‘s musical “Wonka,” enjoying an astounding tenth weekend in the top 5, which is what happens when there are so many weekends with no new wide releases. It took fifth place with an estimated $3.1 million, less than $25k behind “The Chosen.” It is by far the biggest hit of the holiday movie season with $205.3 million grossed in North America.

Universal’s animated “Migration” made another $3 million this weekend, down 28% to take sixth place. It has grossed $110.2 million domestically since opening before Christmas.

The first three episodes of “The Chosen” Season 4 from Angel Studios dropped to sixth place with $2.8 million (down 53%) as it has racked up $12.2 million ahead of the release of the next three episodes on Thursday.

The Sony rom-com “Anyone But You,” starring Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell, released a special “Valentine Encore” version, which had another minor 22% drop to remain in seventh place with $2.7 million, bringing its domestic run to $80.1 million. It added another $9.7 million overseas this weekend, as it’s become a huge global hit for Sony with $170.1 million made globally.

Warner Bros. gave Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune Part 1” a theatrical re-release into 2,100 theaters, including Imax screens, where it made $1.7 million over the weekend, enough to sneak back into the top 10. On the other hand, Disney’s re-release of Pixar Animation’s “Turning Red” into 1,560 theaters ended up being another dud for the Mouse House with a terrible showing of $535,000, averaging just $342 per theater.

SEE Box office: All time domestic top-grossing movies

For the first time since the pandemic, the top 10 at the box office barely pulled in $30 million, a huge blow to theatrical, which has barely had many real hits since October 2023.

Another genre movie that opened wide in 897 theaters was Bleecker Street’s “Out of Darkness,” which ended up making a million over the weekend, roughly $1,120 per theater.

Wim Wenders‘ Oscar-nominated Japanese drama “Perfect Days,” made an estimated $180,000 in five theaters in New York and L.A, while Juliette Binoche‘s French drama “The Taste of Things” made $126,000 in three theaters in New York and L.A., a decent $42,000 per theater with IFC Films planning on expanding it nationwide on Valentine’s Day.

Due to the close proximity between a few movies this weekend, it’s hard to fully gauge how the stats might turn out for this week’s box office prediction game. More players had confidence that “Lisa Frankenstein” would win the weekend over “Argylle,” which didn’t happen. Fourth and fifth place will probably be the deciding factor on whether anyone gets a perfect score for the weekend.

“Napierslogs” was the only player to go 6 for 6 in the Feb. 2 game, but “Fleming18” ended up with an impressive 52,155 points by jumping on “Argylle” to win the weekend very early as his Super Bet.

On Wednesday, Valentine’s Day, Dakota Johnson‘s superhero movie, “Madame Web,” takes on the biopic, “Bob Marley: One Love,” with the next three chapters of “The Chosen” Season 4 hitting theaters on Thursday. Check back here on Wednesday for Gold Derby’s weekend preview.

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