20th Century Studios’ DEATH ON THE NILE cruised to number one on the Super Bowl weekend box office with $12.8M. Kenneth Branagh’s second adaptation of an Agatha Christie whodunit fell short of his first, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, which grossed $29M in its opening weekend in 2017 in pre-pandemic times. Nonetheless, it was still encouraging that a film appealing to an older demographic opened in theatres and took first place despite the Omicron effect.
JACKASS FOREVER took second place with $8.1M in its second week, nosing out MARRY ME’s $8M opening weekend, which was somewhat lower than pre-opening expectations. The Rom-Com starring Jennifer Lopez was strategically timed to open on the weekend before Valentine’s Day, and its impressive 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes should lead to a favorable run over the weeks to come. Its availability on Peacock almost certainly cost it second place at the box office.
This weekend’s other wide opener was BLACKLIGHT, Liam Neeson’s latest action offering. It came with a staggering 6% Fresh critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a paltry $3.6M in ticket sales, placing fifth on the weekend charts. SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME continued its record-breaking run with an additional $7.1M in ticket sales, taking fourth place this weekend and moving into third place all-time with a cume of $759M after nine weeks in theatres. THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD was last weekend’s champ for having the highest gross per theatre, earning an average of $34K per location in its four theatre debut. This week, it expanded to 49 locations and saw its PTA drop down to a still-good-but-not-spectacular $5K. This spells trouble for its potential to expand outside of the traditional art house market.
This was the first-ever convergence of the Super Bowl with Valentine’s Day weekend, and it produced only $53.8M for North America. It was the sixth film weekend of 2022, which compares at 46% of the $116.4M earned during the sixth weekend in 2019 when the Super Bowl had already come and gone. The highly-anticipated UNCHARTED arrives next weekend, which is expected to earn $100M plus over its theatrical run.