Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | February 2, 2026
We’re still in the dump months of the box office, but we’ve not been without a few interesting and non-evil options. At the very least, we got the glorious return of Sam Raimi. No, that non-Spidey Marvel movie he did doesn’t count. Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams, took the top spot over the weekend with $20 million from 3,475 locations. No help needed.
But perhaps the biggest story of the weekend was the release of Iron Lung. Based on a video game, this was the feature directorial debut of Mark Fischbach, a.k.a. Markiplier, one of the biggest stars on YouTube. This project was self-financed and self-released into cinemas, with a reported $3 million budget. It paid off and then some because it earned $17.8 million! The Markiplier fandom came out in droves for this. They led a grassroots campaign to get the major cinema chains to release it, and it ended up in over 3,000 theatres. Is this the beginning of the ‘YouTube to Hollywood’ pipeline done right? We’re definitely going to see a lot of harried studio executives trying to find ways to make lightning strike twice. Just don’t get MrBeast involved, okay?
Amazon’s unveiled propaganda piece Melania earned $7 million from 1,778 locations. This is being heavily spun as a grand victory for the Trumps, but this was an obscenely overpriced project that will never make its money back in theatres. We all know why it exists and who it’s designed to serve, and let us never talk of it again. Just watch The Zone of Interest instead.
Jason Statham’s latest punch fest, Shelter, didn’t do too well this weekend, bringing in $5.5 million from only 2,762 cinemas. I’m sure this one will do better ono streaming, where men the world over can gather in unison for the christening of a new dad movie.
Brat Summer is not over. It is forever. Charli XCX has a ton of movie credits lined up, including as the composer for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, but The Moment is her big star vehicle. She plays, of course, herself, albeit an exaggerated version who is coping with sudden fame amid a lime green album release. It made an impressive $427,940 from only four locations — a per-venue average of $106,985! Will that continue as it opens in more locations? That’s up for debate. Charli is no longer a niche celebrity but she’s also not an A-Lister.
Paris Hilton also tried to get in on the act. Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir is a documentary (?) about her that I didn’t even know was a thing until doing this post. It brought in $200,000 from 677 cinemas. So it’s no beat.
In limited release news: The Hong Kong historical sci-fi Back to the Past earned $196,000 from 50 theatres; A Poet, a Columbian tragicomedy, made $27,754; and The Love That Remains, an Icelandic family dramedy featuring a very cute dog, grossed $27,200.
This coming week sees the release of horror sequel The Strangers: Chapter 3, Luc Besson’s Dracula, and dom-com Pillion.
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.
