As predicted, SCREAM took over first place at the box office, with $30.6M in its opening weekend. After four weeks at number one, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME slid back into second place with a still-impressive $20.8M for the weekend. The superhero saviour has amassed $699M in total, which is good enough for fifth all-time at North American theatres. SING 2 took third place with $8.2M, falling by only 29% from last weekend despite also being available to stream on Peacock.
This weekend is the 3-day Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, which usually provides a jump start to the new year box office after a quiet period after Christmas. The average box office for MLK weekend over the five years prior to the pandemic (2016-2020) was $190M. This year’s results were $72.7M, with only Paramount stepping in with SCREAM to take advantage of the weekend.
The second film week of 2019 did not include the MLK holiday and yet was still able to gross $123M for the three days. By comparison, this year’s second weekend was only 59% of 2019’s Week 2. It would be a relief if help were waiting right around the corner, but instead, the remainder of January looks grim. After MORBIUS moved from 1/28 to 4/1, we need to look out to the first week in February for reinforcements, when the 2/4 releases of MOONFALL and JACKASS FOREVER will arrive. The weekend beginning on 1/28 is completely devoid of any new wide release.