As expected, Spiral: From the Book of Saw took the top spot at the domestic box office this weekend. However, a haul of $8.7 million is lower than what many analysts were expecting, when ten figures was viewed as a realistic figure for a recognizable horror property getting an injection of star power from Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, although it did become the sixth of the nine Saw movies so far to open at number one.

Reviews haven’t been hugely enthusiastic which might have played a part, while franchise fatigue may have also been a factor. Then again, Spiral opened roughly on a par with what Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man brought in last weekend, and both are mid-budget genre films with big names attached, so it’s hardly a disaster by the standards of the pandemic era.

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Image via Lionsgate/Brooke Palmer

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Speaking of, Wrath of Man took the runner-up spot with $3.7 million after dipping over 55%, which is standard for a Statham vehicle, while Angelina Jolie’s thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead nabbed third place with $2.8 million, bringing Warner Bros.’ hot streak of hybrid releases to an end, after every other simultaneous HBO Max premiere had opened in either second or first.

International phenomenon Demon Slayer: Mugen Train took fourth with $1.7 million as the most commercially successful Japanese movie ever continues to bring in the crowds, just ahead of Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, which is still holding on in fifth after earning just $600,000 less than Demon Slayer despite playing in theaters for an eleventh weekend.

In sixth, we find Godzilla vs. Kong, which passed a major milestone. The MonsterVerse blockbuster passed $427 million globally, which makes it the highest-grossing Hollywood film to hit cinemas since Bad Boys for Life arrived in January 2020, which is both encouraging and more than a little depressing at the same time.

Mortal Kombat continues its downward trajectory by taking seventh place with just over $1.3 million, followed by coming-of-age romance Finding You. Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead nabbed ninth position with an estimated $780,000, and you’d at least expect Netflix’s widest-ever theatrical release to bring in the streamer’s highest box office total so it’s mission accomplished in that regard, while the latest Screenlife effort Profile took in $670,000 to bring up the rear.

All in all, it’s not been the greatest of weekends, but it’s a win for Spiral and a huge moment for Godzilla vs. Kong to surpass Bad Boys for Life, although the theatrical industry isn’t out of the woods just yet.

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