Battle at the Box Office 2/5/24

Argylle managed to take the top spot at the box office for its opening weekend but it’s probably not the opening Universal and Matthew Vaughn would have wanted.

Agylle made $17.4 million over the weekend which, while that topped the box office, was below even some of the modest expectations that had it at least topping $20 million.  For Matthew Vaughn, it’s his third worst wide release opening, ahead of Stardust and The King’s Man.  The King’s Man did come out in 2021 as theaters were barely reopening from COVID and had its release date shifted several times, so it’s not an apples-to-oranges comparison.  Argylle cost $200 million to make but the only bit of good news for Universal is that Apple foot the bill to eventually have it on Apple TV+, similar to Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon.  Argylle made $34.7 million worldwide so far.  The CinemaScore for the movie was an atrocious C+, which means the marketing utterly failed to deliver what audiences expected, which probably meant many audience members thought it was going to be a more straightforward spy movie or that Henry Cavill’s side of the movie was a bigger part than what it was.

The Chosen Season 4, Episodes 1-3 took second place with $5.9 million.  It was the widest release in Fathom Events history with 2,281 theaters and it was similar in opening to the previous The Chosen releases, with The Chosen Season 3, Episodes 1 & 2 being the best opening in the franchise with $8.7 million.

Despite direct competition in the action/thriller market this weekend from Argylle, The Beekeeper took third place and only dropped another 21% from last weekend.  It made another $5.2 million and now has just shy of $50 million domestically and $109.4 million worldwide.

Wonka and Migration rounded out the top 5, with Wonka now over $200 million domestically and Migration at $106 million domestically.

Perhaps bolstered by Oscar nominations, and an increase in theaters, American Fiction jumped up from 10th to 8th place over the weekend, taking in $2.3 million and putting it at $15.1 million domestically so far.

The Per Theater average went to How to Have Sex, a Euphoriaesque drama film that made $12,149 in each of the 4 theaters it played in over the weekend.