Well, it had to happen eventually. When James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire And Ash arrived in theaters in mid-December, it did exactly what it was expected to do (which is to say act like a bulldozer at the box office), but we have spent most of January waiting for the arrival of a title that would knock it out of its #1 position. Last Sunday, Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was unable to be that movie, as final results broke a virtual tie in the early numbers, but after after six straight weekends, we now have a new film sitting at the top of the domestic market: Timur Bekmambetov’s Mercy.
Featuring the star power of Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, the new real-time science-fiction feature didn’t exactly have what anyone would describe as a great opening weekend, but the film did sell enough tickets to become the new number one movie in the United States and Canada. You can check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
|
TITLE |
WEEKEND GROSS |
DOMESTIC GROSS |
LW |
THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Mercy* |
$11,100,000 |
$11,100,000 |
N/A |
3,468 |
|
2. Avatar: Fire And Ash |
$7,000,000 |
$378,492,585 |
1 |
3,150 |
|
3. Zootopia 2 |
$5,700,000 |
$401,427,846 |
3 |
2,930 |
|
4. The Housemaid |
$4,200,000 |
$115,452,000 |
4 |
3,007 |
|
5. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple |
$3,600,000 |
$20,751,000 |
2 |
3,506 |
|
6. Marty Supreme |
$3,546,859 |
$86,299,296 |
5 |
2,021 |
|
7. Return To Silent Hill* |
$3,200,000 |
$3,200,000 |
N/A |
1,850 |
|
8. Hamnet |
$2,000,000 |
$17,628,000 |
16 |
1,996 |
|
9. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring |
$2,000,000 |
$325,680,679 |
7 |
1,703 |
|
10. Primate |
$1,640,000 |
$23,503,000 |
6 |
2,145 |
Mercy Defies Bad Buzz And Wins The Box Office On A Slow Weekend
To be perfectly blunt, Mercy entered its opening weekend with some wretched buzz. I personally am not a fan, as evidenced by my one-and-a-half star CinemaBlend review, but that was also not a rare sentiment among my film critic colleagues – many of whom joined me in pointing out its gaping storytelling problems. That being said, there is a seemingly endless number of movies that arrived in theaters on a wave of bad buzz and still claimed the number one spot at the box office, and this title is the latest.
Mercy didn’t exactly light the world on fire, as early weekend results from The Numbers show that it had what is being recorded as only the third best debut for a new 2026 movie: it made less than both the aforementioned 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple ($12.5 million) and Johannes Roberts’ Primate ($11.2 million). But because the big screen audience for Avatar: Fire And Ash continues to shrink and its blockbuster numbers continue to wane, the $11.1 million earned was enough for it to land at #1. It’s win is more about timing than true success.
Thus far, the Chris Pratt/Rebecca Ferguson movie has just about matched its domestic haul so far in overseas markets, as it has made $11.6 million abroad – which brings its worldwide total to date up to $22.8 million. Considering that the film is almost guaranteed to fade quickly in theaters (at least domestically), that’s not an ideal start, as Variety has reported a $60 million production budget (which doesn’t account for marketing and publicity). As a mid-budget sci-fi project, it won’t go down as a massive early-in-the-year bomb, but it’s not off to a great start.
As far as Chris Pratt being a box office draw, Mercy is definitely a notable step down,,, though, to be fair, this isn’t a title that is also part of a major intellectual property like Marvel, Jurassic World, Super Mario Bros. or Garfield. In recent years, all of Pratt’s original features have been streaming originals (including Joe and Anthony Russo’s The Electric State for Netflix and Chris McKay’s The Tomorrow War for Amazon Prime Video) so one has to go all the way back to 2016 to find a proper box office comparison: Morten Tyldum’s Passengers.
That title – co-starring Jennifer Lawrence and admittedly released during a very different box office era – made just $14.9 million in its late December opening weekend, but it went on to make $100 million domestically and $302.2 million worldwide. There is no way that is happening with Mercy.
This coming Friday won’t see a host of titles that will set the world on fire (I’ll get into specifics a bit later), but I won’t be at all surprised if we see a new #1 title, as I suspect there is a rough weekend-to-weekend drop coming in the future for the latest Bekmambetov feature.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Takes A Terrible Slide In Its Second Weekend
Part of the reason why I suspect Mercy will have a rough second weekend at the box office is because of the word of mouth surrounding the film. While it’s true that audiences don’t seem to be reacting to it the same way as critics (evidenced by a 61-point differential in scores on Rotten Tomatoes), movie-goers aren’t exactly loving it either, as illustrated by the “B-” grade returned in CinemaScore surveys.
Negative or lacking buzz can be death for a feature – though it’s worth noting that it’s not always a savior. Just look at what’s happening with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
Of the limited new releases we’ve seen so far in 2026, the new horror sequel has earned the greatest acclaim by far, but it’s not saving it at the box office, as evidenced by what has happened in the last three days. After landing in second place last weekend with an underwhelming debut, the film has seen its ticket sales drop by 71 percent. Domestically, the movie made only $3.6 million in the last three days, bringing its total in the market to date up to $20.8 million.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is only doing marginally better abroad, and its worldwide earnings so far are up to $46.1 million. After 10 days, that’s only about $16 million more than what Danny Boyle‘s 28 Years Later made in its domestic opening weekend last summer before going on to make $150 million worldwide.
Months After Its Debut, Zootopia 2 Is Still Hitting New Milestones
While most of the results in this weekend’s box office report are a bummer, I’ll conclude with a happy note and point out the latest milestone hit by Jared Bush and Byron Howard’s Zootopia 2, which just completed its ninth weekend in release after debuting in theaters for the 2025 Thanksgiving holiday. After more than two months, the film is still holding on in third place in the domestic Top 10, and it just crossed $400 million in the region.
Zootopia 2 remains ahead of Avatar: Fire And Ash on the domestic chart, and only two movies last year earned more in the U.S. and Canada: Jared Hess’ A Minecraft Movie ($424.1 million) and Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Lilo & Stitch ($423.8 million). Will it eventually topple both? That may be difficult, but it’s not impossible.
Looking ahead, the biggest new movie in theaters this weekend will be Sam Raimi’s Send Help starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, and it will be fascinating to see how it ultimately performs up against both Mercy and Avatar 3. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next week to scope out the results!