Lionsgate is hoping to put a poor 2024 box office behind them starting with the release of “Den of Thieves: Pantera,” which is opening to a solid $15 million from 3,008 locations and the studio’s first No. 1 since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in November 2023.
That matches the unadjusted $15. 2 million of the first “Den of Thieves” released in 2018. The sequel, starring Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. , earned the most positive reception with Rotten Scores Tomatoes with a 60 % reviews and 80%. audience and a B+ in CinemaScore. The film has a budget of $40 million, but Lionsgate’s strategy of recouping some or all of the investment in its films through pre-sales is expected to reduce the break-even point.
Holiday leftovers edge out the rest of the top five, starting with Disney’s “Mufasa,” which will surpass $500 million internationally with an estimated $12 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to 187 million dollars.
Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” reaches a milestone by being the first film in the Sega series to surpass $200 million domestically, grossing $8. 6 million in its fourth weekend for a total of 202 million nationally.
Focus Features’ “Nosferatu” comes in fourth with $6. 3 million in its third weekend and a total of $81 million, followed by Disney’s “Moana 2” with $5. 9 million in its seventh weekend, thus reaching $1 billion worldwide.
Overall earnings for the weekend are estimated at $72 million, down about 31% from last weekend. The decline can be attributed to basically the same old drop after the holidays, when the public returns to work, but is also affected by the winter storms that hit the southern and eastern United States and wildfires in Los Angeles, where lately 12 movie theaters are closed.