Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard took top spot at the box office this weekend as expected with $11.7 million, bringing it up to over $17 million in total since first releasing on Wednesday, but it's the lowest number one film we've had for a month, just when it looked as though the theatrical industry was finally starting to find its feet again with any sort of consistency.
In the last four weeks A Quiet Place Part II (twice), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and Cruella all scored at least $21 million, and the sequel to a popular buddy comedy starring two proven and popular talents in Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson had many analysts predicting at least $20 million for the five-day frame, but Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard fell a little short.
John Krasinski's horror sequel dipped one place to take second with $9.4 million, continuing to extend its pandemic-era record domestic haul to over $125 million. On that note, Godzilla vs. Kong became just the second film to release since February of 2020 to cross $100 million on home turf, bringing in the final $250,000 that it needed to break through, and the latest chapter in the MonsterVerse is now sitting on an impressive global haul of $442 million.
Holdovers Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, The Conjuring 3 and Cruella occupy the next three positions, meaning that In the Heights has slipped down to sixth in just its second weekend, a tragedy for a musical that's been drawing such stellar reviews from all corners. In other notable news, Disney and Pixar released Luca in a single theater and it brought in $80,000, which would make it the sixteenth highest-grossing title of the weekend, an impressive achievement when you consider it's available to stream on Disney+ and played on just one screen.
The weekend belongs to Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, though, which is likely on the right track to become profitable, even if it won't hit the heights of a predecessor that earned $176 million and change after becoming one of summer 2017's biggest sleeper hits.