January is a sleepy time at the multiplex, but Wonka is still sitting pretty on top of the charts. While it isn’t as huge a smash as Avatar: The Way of Water, this musical prequel was the clear winner over the holidays. Excellent reviews, word of mouth, and its family-friendly tone continue to draw patrons in the New Year.
Horror movies tend to do well in the cold months… when they’re good. That does not appear to be the case with Night Swim, starring Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon, which sank at #2 with only $12M over the three-day weekend.
This picture, about a haunted swimming pool (yep), only received a C CinemaScore from exiting audiences and one (ONE!) star via PostTrak. On Rotten Tomatoes, its audience score is 44%. If audiences, who are typically more generous, are this rough on Night Swim, it should come as no surprise that critics hated it. Its Tomatometer score is 26%.
Needless to say, this is NOT this year’s M3gan.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom managed to cross a milestone, swimming past the $100M mark at the domestic box office. Globally, it has earned $334.8M. I mean… that’s pretty good for a DCEU movie (actually any superhero flick nowadays), but it’s a far cry from the $1B+ that the first movie made.
Migration is hanging in there at #4, bringing its domestic total to $77.8M, which is better than Disney’s Wish made in its entire theatrical run.
Meanwhile, the Glen Powell/Syndey Sweeney rom-com Anyone but You rounds out the Top Five. Just a note, this is the only movie to do better this weekend than last and it’s in its third week, so it’s not gaining new theaters. If anything, it’s losing some screens.
It seems that people (mainly women) are just craving this type of film on the big screen after they have mostly been relegated to TV and streaming. This should be a great signal to both Hollywood and cinemas where mid-tier offerings have been suffering due to the onslaught of both big-budget tentpoles and low-budget (usually horror) fare. Could we actually see a resurgence of comedies, both romantic and otherwise, in theaters?
Check out the Top Five below:
- Wonka (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $14.4M/ Total $164.6M/ Wk 3
- Night Swim (Universal) – 3-day $12M/ Wk 1
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $10.6M/ Total $100M/ Wk 3
- Migration (Illumination/Universal) – 3-day $10.25M/ Total $77.8M/ Wk 3
- Anyone But You (Sony) – 3-day $9.5M/ Total $43.7M/ Wk 3
As you can see, falling out of the Top Five entirely in just its second full weekend is the high-profile film adaptation of the stage musical version of The Color Purple. This picture made a splash upon its opening, taking the #1 spot on Christmas Day with $18M. Unfortunately, in the short time since, it has steadily seen a drop in attendance. Last weekend, its first, The Color Purple only landed in the #4 position grossing just $13M over three days.
Why isn’t this not clicking? Honestly, musicals are just hit or miss. It’s also not a glittery, splashy musical like Wonka or The Greatest Showman. The subject matter is much heavier and the more serious movies (Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon) have been struggling. (Then again, one of the top movies of 2023 was Oppenheimer, so I think I give up on trying to analyze this kind of thing.)
There is hope that The Color Purple might see a surge over MLK Weekend or if it gets some Academy Awards love. That seems unlikely at this point, though.
Next weekend, the biggest new release is… wait what? Another musical?! Okay, then, let’s see how this goes.
The big new release next weekend is Mean Girls, which just like The Color Purple, is an adaptation of a stage production based on an existing movie. The first Mean Girls movie came out in 2004 and became an instant classic with infinitely quotable lines (“She doesn’t even go here!”). The stage musical kicked off on Broadway in 2018 and wrapped its run in 2020.
What’s interesting is that like Wonka, this new feature version is kind of a “Trojan musical.” In the trailers for Wonka, Warner Bros. didn’t include much music, perhaps to entice viewers who just don’t typically like musicals. There has been NO music from the stage version in any of the new Mean Girls trailers, with Paramount instead using Olivia Rodrigo’s “Get Him Back.” Is Hollywood just scared of trying to market musicals now? I mean, there have been some pretty splashy flops (West Side Story) in recent years, but… why keep making them if you don’t think they’ll do well?
Will you be wearing pink to the debut of Mean Girls? What other movies are you looking forward to in 2024?
