Super Bowl weekend, despite its damper on Sunday business, used to be a box office frame that could still yield results, even for films aimed at dudes. Like in 2015, when the sixth weekend of American Sniper drummed up $30.7 million, or in 2020, when the third weekend of Bad Boys for Life did $17.6M.
This year, we have Apple Original Films’ poorly received Matthew Vaughn-directed Argylle doing $6.6M, down 62% in Weekend 2, for what will be a 10-day result of $28.9M at 3,605 theaters.
Focus Features is trying to counterprogram with the Zelda Williams teenage genre comedy Lisa Frankenstein, aimed at young women and arthouse audiences. Booked at 3,143 theaters with a $4M three-day, it’s not exactly Mean Girls, more under the start of another teenage comedy aimed at highbrow crowds: 2019’s Booksmart, which debuted to $6.9M at 2,505 theaters.
Lisa Frankenstein, scripted by Oscar winner Diablo Cody, follows a girl who has a crush on a dead person. After a set of horrific circumstances brings him back to life, the two embark on a journey to find love, happiness — and a few missing body parts. The movie, which didn’t win over critics at 51% Rotten, stars Cole Sprouse and Kathryn Newton. RT audience score is better at 73%.
Friday’s $1.8M take for the pic includes $700,000 from previews Thursday night. By the way, that $4M was at the low end of tracking estimates, which were between $4M-$6M.
The fifth weekend of Amazon MGM’s Jason Statham movie The Beekeeper ranks third with a Friday of $950K, a three-day of $3.3M at 3,057 theaters, -38%, and running total of $54.1M. That result is ahead of such Statham action titles Crank ($28M), The Mechanic ($29M), all three Transporter movies, and The Expendables 3 ($39M). But it’s a far jump past The Meg 2 ($83M), the next solo benchmark for the British star.
Warner Bros’ Wonka also wants to rank third with $3.3M at 2,764, -29%, in Weekend 9 after an $800K Friday, which will put its running stateside total at $205.2M by Sunday. At the domestic B.O., it’s Timothée Chalamet’s highest-grossing movie to date.
Fifth place goes to Illumination/Universal’s Migration, which in Weekend 8 is spotting $3M, -28%, for a $109.9M running total at 2,679 locations.
Last year’s Super Bowl weekend totaled $52.6M per Box Office Mojo, led by Warner Bros’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance with a an $8.3M opening. This year’s is sure to be lower.