Hollywood’s latest music biopic, Bob Marley: One Love continues to jam at the global box office, where it crossed the $100 million mark on Thursday, including $61.4 million domestically and $39.7 million overseas, after only 10 days in theaters.
The Paramount movie will easily stay atop this weekend’s domestic box office chart with an estimated $13.4 million to $14 million from 3,597 locations, according to early weekend estimates.
One Love made headlines a week ago when snagging a six-day launch of $51.1 million over the Valentine’s Day-Presidents Day corridor, one of the best openings for a music biopic (Straight Outta Compton remains top of the list) and well ahead of the dismal $26 million debut of Sony’s doomed Madame Web.
Based on early numbers for this weekend, Madame Web continues to spin out of control. Early estimates show the female-led superhero pic grossing around $5 million from 4,013 theaters in its sophomore outing. This will likely land the film in fourth place at the box office behind One Love, the latest installment in the Japanese anime series Demon Slayer and the new Hilary Swank-led movie Ordinary Angels.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — to the Hashira Training, from Crunchyroll and Sony, is tipped to place second with a better-than-expected $11 million to $12 million from 1,949 theaters, thanks to fanboys.
Ordinary Angels, a faith film from Lionsgate, should follow with as much as $6 million from 3,020 cinemas after earning a coveted A+ CinemaScore from audiences. If it does, that means Madame Web will fall to No. 4 (the film’s projected domestic cume through Sunday is only $34 million to $35 million.)
Another film encountering difficulty is Focus Features and Working Title’s specialty film Drive-Away Dolls, which Ethan Coen of Coen brothers fame directed on his own from a script he wrote with Tricia Cooke, his wife. The lesbian road-trip comedy — slapped with a C+ CinemaScore, same as Madame Web a week ago — may only earn $2.3 million $2.4 million for the weekend from 2,280 locations despite a star-studded cast that includes Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Pedro Pascal and Matt Damon.
Generally speaking, a specialty title — such as a Coen brothers’ movie — has a small footprint to begin with before platforming. Focus and the filmmakers took a different route and decided to open Drive-Away Girls everywhere in hopes of helping exhibitors who have seen a dramatic slowdown in product throughout January and February. Moviegoers, however, don’t appear to be going along for the ride, although it could spark interest on premium VOD.
Overall domestic box office revenue has been down sharply in January and February due to a lack of product related to strike delays. The landscape should improve on March 1 when Warner Bros. and Legendary open Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. Warners has begun screening the year’s first tentpole in earnest and Dune 2 currently sports a 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score from just under 150 reviews.
That’s not to say there haven’t been wins, including One Love and fellow Parmount pic Mean Girls. There just haven’t been any all-audience tentples. On the specialty side, Searhlights’ Oscar contender Poor Things has been a notable win for the art house side of the business and should cross the $100 million globally over the weekend.
Numbers will be updated Sunday morning.
