The top five lineup remained unchanged at what’s shaping up to be a dull weekend at the box office. Spider-Man: No Way Home held on to the top spot after having reclaimed it from the Scream reboot last weekend. The Sony superhero film is expected to make $10.4 million across three days, registering a marginal 26% drop.
No Way Home has now topped the box office on six out of seven weekends, as it sets its sights on beating Avatar on the all-time list. Currently placed at the number four spot with $734 million, the film is within touching distance of Avatar’s $760 million haul, earned, admittedly, over a decade ago. The number two and number one films on the all-time list are Avengers: Endgame ($858 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936 million).
No Way Home ignited a largely dormant theatrical marketplace, which has experienced many false starts over the last couple of years. While the film likely performed as well as it would have in non-pandemic times, it's still an anomaly that eviscerated all competition in its way, including the number two film on our list.
Paramount’s Scream is expected to finish the weekend with $6.6 million, after dropping 46%. The horror reboot’s running domestic total is over $60 million, which validates the studio’s faith in directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and its own decision to not cave for some sort of hybrid streaming release. Horror sequels have proven to be an unexpectedly safe bet during pandemic times, with Scream following in the footsteps of A Quiet Place Part II and Halloween Kills.
Continuing its quietly stellar run at the box office, Universal’s Sing 2 is expected to finish the weekend with another $4.7 million in the bank, dropping just 17%. That’s a remarkable hold for a film that has been available to rent on digital for over two weeks now. While its running domestic total of $134 million might seem paltry in comparison to the original 2016 film’s $270 haul—the original also made $630 million worldwide—it’s a major win for animation at a time when the industry is waiting to watch just how badly the pandemic will affect its fortunes. Three Pixar films in a row have been relegated to streaming, and the highest-grossing animated feature before Sing 2 was 2019’s Frozen II.
Coming in at the number four spot was Universal’s counter-programmer Redeeming Love. The faith-based drama opened to terrible reviews, and fell by over 60% for an estimated weekend haul of $1.85 million. It has made a measly $6.5 million in total domestically.
And even though it has found a place in the top five for several weeks, 20th Century Studios’ The King’s Man is hardly a success story. The prequel to director Matthew Vaughn’s lucrative spy franchise has barely managed to cross the $30 million mark domestically, as it added $1.6 million this weekend.
We can expect some life to be pumped into the box office next week, with the release of Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall and Jackass Forever, which now qualifies as a legacy sequel?