Box Office Report: That's a Spicy Sandworm

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | March 18, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | March 18, 2024 |

In the battle of pandas versus sandworms, the cute martial arts belly flop is winning. Granted, generally speaking, the kids’ movie will always fare better than the one intended for adult audiences, but we’re sure that Po would make an excellent non-benevolent dictator of the universe too.

Kung Fu Panda 2 stayed on top in its second week of release with $30 million, which brings its domestic total to over $107 million. This franchise has legs, which I’m sure will delight Universal. It’s already closing in on the $126.5 million of the slow-burn success Migration.

Things were also great for Dune: Part Two, which saw its domestic gross pass $205 million. It has now taken in over $494.7 million worldwide, which means it has easily soared past the gross of the first film, and it’s currently the highest-grossing movie of 2024 so far. It’ll be interesting to see how far this one goes in the coming weeks as more blockbusters enter the fray.

Marky Mark and his doggo didn’t do so well. Arthur the King is an inspirational drama about a racer who adopts a stray dog. It is, as far as I can tell, not religious. You’ll have to go to those Catholic prayer app ads for Wahlberg faith stuff. Anyway, this film made $7.5 million from just over 3,000 theatres.

A24’s Love Lies Bleeding expanded its run to an extra 1,548 theatres and earned $2.48 million for its troubles. That put it above One Life, the real-life drama starring Anthony Hopkins that feels like a future episode of This Had Oscar Buzz in the making. That one earned $1.7 million from 983 locations. That put it above The American Society of Magical Negroes, which grossed $1.25 million from 1,147 cinemas.

The Best Picture winner Oppenheimer got a minor victory run as it re-entered 681 theatres to bring in a few more dollars — $305,000, to be precise. That brings its domestic total to $329,703,405. Well done on that blank cheque for your next movie, Nolan.

In limited release news: the comedy Snack Shack made $300,000; South Korean horror film Exhuma (starring Oldboy himself, Choi Min-sik) took in $65,500; Ryuchi Sakamoto: Opus, a documentary on the legendary composer’s final days, made $9,400; and another documentary, Remembering Gene Wilder, earned $3,007.

Following its Best Animated Feature win at the Oscars, The Boy and the Heron is returning to theatres, so if you didn’t get a chance to watch my favourite film of 2023, you may be able to do so no. It’s beautiful. Wow, Miyazaki has some strong emotions about birds…

This coming week also sees the release of the horror film Immaculate, the busting sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and the re-release of Pixar’s Luca.

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