Weekend box office: The Upside dethrones Aquaman
I wasn’t sure what to make of THE UPSIDE. It’s a film that was finished over a year ago and has gotten consistently bad reviews at every festival. The fact that it was dumped in the middle of January was another sign no one had any faith in the film. But to my surprise, THE UPSIDE is going to be the number one movie at the weekend box office and is coming close to $20 million. The marketing for the film wasn’t great and critics were cruel, so the only answer for how well this film is doing is Kevin Hart. The fact he can open a non-comedy in the middle of January is extremely impressive and only cements his status as an A-list comedian. The other new movie of the weekend was A DOG’S WAY HOME, which rode some feel good family vibes to third place, but probably would have done more with a more appropriate release date.
Next week should clearly belong to GLASS, although to what extent is unclear. The long awaited sequel and universe tie-in for UNBREAKABLE and SPLIT has been enough to make fans drool at the possibility. But early reviews have not been kind to the film and some fear that this might be a wasted opportunity for M. Night Shyamalan. That could result in a nice opening weekend number and then a drastic drop off, or it could mean disaster all around as fans wait for it to hit home video. There’s also the animated film ARCTIC JUSTICE coming out and to be perfectly honest, I know nothing about this film and have barley heard of it. But it’s an animated film when the only other option is SPIDER-MAN INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, so it could surprise and crack the top five. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. The Upside $19.2m
2. Aquaman $15.3m
3. A Dog’s Way Home $11.2m
4. Escape Room $8.4m
5. Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse $7.3m
6. On the Basis of Sex $6.4
7. Bumblebee $5.9m
8. Mary Poppins Returns $5.9m
9. The Mule $5.5m
10. Vice $3.3m
(Deadline)
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