Well, even if the cold times permeate the entirety of the North American continent, that didn’t stop folks from showing up for demographically friendly new features and letting your winter holdovers keep things moving along to cap off January. If you look solely at what has dropped this weekend, you’ve got a video-game-based horror film by a renowned YouTube personality, a satirical mockumentary, and a documentary about the president’s wife. Who could ask for a much better turnout than that?
Anyway, the winner goes to the newcomer backed by popular names and a marquee director in the form of Send Help, which earned $20 million in its debut. The Rachel McAdams/Dylan O’Brien feature checked off the notes for a breakout thanks to an easy pitch, ensemble cast, and strong reviews. It may not be the most blow-your-heart out of this water in terms of a debut, but it temporarily pushes folks out of that trite mindset that “not enough folks are going to show up for an original!”
Kudos to Mark Fischback (also known as Markiplier) for turning online fandom and social media buzz into real-world transactional attention, a rarity these days. Iron Lung may not have scored the biggest opening of the weekend, but it’ll have to do with $17.8 million in its debut. It was smart for the YouTuber not go overboard with his budgeting for this adaptation of a recent game that folks seemed to like, and it captured a lightning-in-a-bottle scenario where a separate platform now has a chance to throw online features into films when the likes of Netflix are more concerned about pulling titles away after brief runs.
Amazon MGM’s Melania took in $7.04 million in its debut, making it the highest-earning political documentary by flying past Obama’s America and After Death, Am I Racist?, and pushing past the proverbial notion that documentaries (which remain an endangered species) may have a chance again. Yes, even if audiences adored it and critics loathed it, folks still showed up. Now, it’s nowhere close to the “actual” documentaries like Renaissance, but this is a good note of success.
In other news, Zootopia 2 regained some ground in its tenth weekend, moving past $400 million domestic and already targeting $1.8 billion globally. Newcomer Shelter, starring Jason Statham, opened to $5.5 million, which is the worst grosser ever for a Jason Statham-led feature (sorry about the tough competition this weekend). Avatar: Fire and Ash will push through towards $1.45 billion.
Mercy took a bit of a tumble and has passed $41 million worldwide. The Housemaid has become The Greatest Showman redux this season, already passing $120 million domestic and $310 million worldwide in its seventh weekend. Marty Supreme has passed $115 million worldwide. Sony’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple may not even reach its predecessor’s $60 million global debut, as it has only passed $53 million worldwide. Just another irksome bit of punditry when the niche IP can’t deliver when it once did for other previous titles.
Next weekend sees the release of The Strangers – Chapter 3, Solo Mio, The President’s Cake, Twisted, and The Roaring Game.
