Box Office Report: The Tuna That Would Be King

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | January 28, 2019 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | January 28, 2019 |

The January drought continues but it’s meant good news for M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass. Despite tepid reviews, the film stayed on top for a second week and has made close to $74m domestically already. Internationally, it’s passed $162m. I keep seeing people wonder how Shyamalan keeps getting chances, but the numbers are there for his past four movies: Small budgets, big returns and smart scheduling.

Another film benefitting from this quiet week is The Upside, which is 3 weeks in and holding on strong with its week by week changes. It only dropped 18.4% from last week, staying at number 2 with $12.2m. STX Entertainment have one of their biggest hits ever thanks to it. Alas, newer releases didn’t do so well this weekend. The Kid Who Would Be King debuted at number 4 with only $7.25m from 3521 theatres. Reviews were good enough but I didn’t see anyone really hungering for this film. That’s a shame because Joe Cornish is one of the more dynamic genre directors we have and we see so little of him. Serenity slumped at number 8 with only $4.8m. Bad reviews didn’t help but the confused marketing was probably key here. But seriously, read every spoiler-filled review of that movie. It is a TRIP. There is a tuna fish called Justice.

The Oscar nominations are out and so the big players got their boosts. Well, most of them. Green Book did the best from this, with Universal pushing it into an extra 1500 theatres, giving it a $5.4m weekend. The Favourite had a huge change of 214% increase, while A Star is Born leapt 106% as it was pushed into 777 more theatres. The one film that didn’t get the post-Oscar nomination boost? Vice. Despite all those nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and three acting nods, it actually saw a 1.1% decrease from last week, even as it was put into an extra 382 theatres. Maybe audiences aren’t wild about a Dick Cheney movie right now? Or perhaps those very mixed reviews were off-putting enough. Remember, this was an expensive film for a supposed indie - around $60m - so this needs to make at least $160m to break even. So far, it’s at about $42m. Eh…

Oh, and The Mule crossed $100m domestically. Eh.

This coming week sees the release of Miss Bala, Catherine Hardwicke’s remake of the Mexican drama, with Gina Rodriguez in the lead, and Arctic, which features Mads Mikkelsen doing things. Important things. In the snow.

You can check out the rest of this weekend’s box office here.

What films did you watch this weekend? Let us know in the comments.