If time is a flat circle, then it is only fitting that a second Liam Neeson film is dominating the US box office during the pandemic. Months after his action thriller “Honest Thief” topped the national charts, another Neeson action thriller (you guessed it!) “The Marksman” debuted in first place with $ 3.2 million in ticket sales.
Robert Lorenz directed “The Marksman”, about a retired farmer and marine who lives in Arizona and helps a boy escape from a Mexican drug cartel. The film, which premiered at 1,975 locations, is expected to raise $ 3.7 million during Martin Luther King’s holiday on Monday. Open Road, the distributor behind “The Marksman”, also supported “Honest Thief”. This film dropped to $ 3.7 million last October and ended its theatrical screening with $ 14 million in the US and $ 28 million worldwide.
“The Marksman” joins the company of “Honest Thief” and “The War With Grandpa” by Robert De Niro as some of the biggest box office hits in modern history, highlighting the sad reality that cinemas are facing amid the latest COVID of the country -19 wave. Overall, about 65% of US cinemas remain closed due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, “Wonder Woman 1984” dropped to second place after beating the competition (although silent) for three consecutive weekends. Warner Bros. did not provide a total of three days, but the studio projects that the superhero sequel will generate $ 2.6 million over the extended holiday. However, “Wonder Woman 1984” may drop to third place behind “The Croods: A New Age” when Martin Luther King’s day sales are finalized on Monday. Since landing on Christmas Day, Gal Gadot’s last outing as Diana Prince has raised $ 35 million in the United States
“Wonder Woman 1984”, an adaptation of DC Comics that cost $ 200 million to produce, released simultaneously on the fledgling streaming service HBO Max. It will be removed from the platform next Sunday, and the film will only be available to watch in theaters until you reach the traditional home theater window. He is expected to return to the streamer a few months later. Internationally, where HBO Max has yet to be launched, the fantastic sequel generated $ 5.2 million, increasing foreign revenue to $ 105.9 million, for a worldwide total of $ 141.7 million.
For now, Universal and DreamWorks’ sequel to The Croods was third, accumulating $ 2.04 million this weekend and looking to cross the long weekend with $ 2.9 million. The family animated film actually improved last week’s revenue by 13%, which is impressive considering it is available to watch in home entertainment. Last year, Universal struck a deal with major theater chains like AMC and Cinemark to allow the studio to place new releases on demand after 17 days in theaters. In return, selected exhibitors are receiving an undisclosed share of digital profits. After two months in theaters, “The Croods: A New Age” raised $ 40 million at the national box office. Abroad, the film added another US $ 2.2 million from 17 countries, for an international total of US $ 94.7 million and a global collection of US $ 134.8 million.
Another Universal title, “News of the World” with Tom Hanks, came in fourth with a total of $ 1.05 million in three days and an expected total of $ 1.27 million in four days. The western drama, which is also available to watch on demand, raised $ 8.72 million on the big screen. Completing the top five is Sony’s suspense, “Monster Hunter”. The video game adaptation with Milla Jovovich generated $ 920,000 over the weekend and is expected to reach $ 1.09 million by the day of the MLK. By Monday, he will have raised $ 9.2 million so far.
Although “Promising Young Woman” dropped to seventh place on the box office charts, the film practically dominated conversations on social media when the acclaimed revenge thriller hit premium platforms on demand this weekend. (Focus Features, the company that distributes the film, is under the initial VOD agreement of its Universal controller.) The film was shown in more than 1,000 theaters and raised $ 430,000 over the weekend, most of which came from drive rentals. -in. Directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman” has grossed $ 3.4 million in theaters so far. The studio did not say how many rented the film online.
At the box office of the specialty, IFC Filmes premiered “MLK / FBI” – a documentary directed by Sam Pollard – on demand and in more than 120 cinemas across the country. The film grossed $ 27,500 over the three-day weekend and expects to gross $ 33,250 by Monday. Although IFC did not provide tangible rental statistics, the company said the documentary was among the top ten on Apple Movies’ independent charts and among the top five in documentaries.
“We are very excited that the most revised and most important documentary of the year is connecting so strongly with audiences on all platforms,” said IFC Films President Arianna Bocco.
Abroad, Disney and Pixar’s “Soul” continued to drag on at the international box office, especially in China, where it is now Pixar’s third highest grossing film of all time, with $ 43.1 million. The beloved family animated film is not being shown in US theaters. Instead, it debuted on the Disney Plus streaming service on Christmas Day. In total, “Soul” raised $ 57.4 million in 11 countries.