It was a muted weekend at the box office as studios resisted releasing major movies ahead of Warner Bros’ The Batman, which is heading towards a $100 million-plus debut next Friday. This allowed for Sony’s Uncharted to repeat at the top of the chart for the second weekend in row. Last week’s surprise over-performer, Dog, improved upon Saturday’s estimates, and settled into the number two spot with over $10.1 million across three days.
Overall, the box office stood at just under $65 million this weekend, which... isn’t great. The same weekend in pre-pandemic 2020 drew just over $100 million, while 2019's post-Presidents' Day weekend drew just under $130 million.
With an estimated $23.2 million in its sophomore frame, Uncharted is looking like a winner for Sony, even as the studio celebrates the record-breaking success of this weekend’s number three film, Spider-Man: No Way Home. Both movies, of course, star Tom Holland in the lead role, and the success of Uncharted—the film has made over $83 million domestically so far—is validation for the mass appeal of video game adaptations, and Holland’s newfound star power.
Crucially, the actor hadn’t delivered a hit outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, and a second successful franchise should go a long way in establishing his reputation. And despite mixed reviews, let us not ignore the contribution of director Ruben Fleischer, and the wise move that Sony made to bring him in after spending over a decade dealing with a revolving door of filmmakers, who all departed the project for a variety of reasons. Fleischer has now played an instrumental role in starting three franchises for Sony; before Uncharted, he directed two Zombieland films and the first Venom for the studio. Internationally, Uncharted is at $226 million, even before a China release.
Not just Holland, this weekend also proved that despite having not appeared in a starring role in around half a decade, Channing Tatum is still a box office draw. Not only was he at the front-and-center of Dog’s marketing, but he also made his directorial debut with the feel-good picture, alongside his longtime creative partner Reid Carolin. They will next reunite for the third Magic Mike film, which will be directed by Steven Soderbergh, for HBO Max. Dog’s running domestic total is now over $30 million, against a modest reported budget of $15 million.
No Way Home might have slipped to number three—the film made an estimated $5.7 million this weekend—but it’s still far from being done. The superhero extravaganza that united three generations of Spider-Man stars has made $779 million domestically so far, settling into the number three spot on the all-time list. There is still a chance that it crosses the $800 million mark domestically, becoming only the third film ever to do so, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936 million) and Avengers: Endgame ($858 million). There’s still time; the film will arrive on digital next month, followed by a Blu-ray release in April.
Director Kenneth Branagh’s second Agatha Christie adaptation—Death on the Nile—has had a long road to release, and the results don’t seem to be worth the trouble. The film made an estimated $4.5 million this weekend for a running domestic total of just over $32 million. That’s just slightly over Dog’s total, with an extra week of release. By comparison, Branagh’s first Christie adaptation—2017’s Murder on the Orient Express—made over $100 million domestically and over $350 million worldwide, on a smaller budget. Internationally, however, Death on the Nile has crossed the $100 million mark.
Like Sony, Paramount is also celebrating back-to-back hits. After January’s Scream (which finished at the number 10 spot this weekend), Jackass Forever revived a dormant franchise. The film has delivered a stellar running total of over $52 million, after a fifth-place finish with $3.1 million this weekend.
Elsewhere at the box office, the weekend’s sole wide release—the Foo Fighters’ horror-comedy Studio 666—debuted at the number eight spot with an estimated $1.5 million, while director Joe Wright’s musical drama Cyrano took the ninth spot with $1.4 million.
Stay tuned to Collider next weekend, as director Matt Reeves’ long-in-the-making The Batman debuts exclusively in theaters.