Breaking out of the icy situation, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ruled the weekend with a $45.2 million debut, slightly beating expectations and even narrowly passing Afterlife‘s $44 million in November 2021 and less-than-mighty reviews (a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes and B+ from CinemaScore). Yes, the franchise hasn’t exactly broken out of its consistency realm for the business’s new (and past) core fans where we bust down ghosts.
This is a peculiar case because Sony sold this more as a new chapter to 2016’s Ghostbusters than a direct follow-up to Afterlife, similar to how M. Night Shyamalan sold Glass more as “the” sequel to Unbreakable than the recent breakout of Split and its “catch you off-guard with that tie-in memo.” The legs in the series have been relatively similar lately, although the question of whether it can break out overseas remains. Assuming it doesn’t get pummeled by Godzilla x Kong next weekend, we could look at a $125 million domestic and around $215 million worldwide for the latest feature (even when slightly glossing over its $100 million budget).
Dune: Part Two remained firm in second place with $17.6 million, earning $233.3 million domestically and $575 million worldwide. It has doubled Dune‘s domestic cume and passed Wonka‘s domestic earnings, another hat-tip towards Timothee Chalamet. It’ll be passing $600 million worldwide later this week, and then we’ll see it dispatch of Wonka‘s grand totals after that. There is a good chance it’ll reach $700 million worldwide to once again become the most significant earning feature since Barbenheimer.
Kung Fu Panda 4 slipped past the Altreides house last weekend, but not this one (even if the race is pretty close) for $16.8 million in its third weekend. It has already earned $268 million globally and had a decent showing in China ($25.7 million). Taking a slight hit from Ghostbusters was inevitable, but this should be on pace to pass $300 million globally before next weekend. It will probably do what it can to reach the numbers of its predecessor in 2016, but with a cheaper budget, this is still a decisive win for another Dreamworks series.
Newcomer Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney, took in a middling $5.36 million (yet record for NEON); this religious work prided itself more on Sweeney’s presence than actually getting a strong message out, so the “added value element” is the most straightforward matter to debate. Mark Wahlberg’s Arthur the King took in $4.36 million, while another newcomer, Late Night with the Devil, took in $2.83 million (a good number for IFC Films). Bob Marley: One Love will pass $175 million globally by Thursday, and Migration has wrapped up its long wheels with around $290 million worldwide.
