Box Office Report for the Week of May 16th

The report that movies are back may have come a little too enthusiastically a little too soon. While movies like Godzilla vs. Kong have shown that people are ready to go back to the theaters, this weekend showed box office prognosticators being a little too bullish on just how eager those theatergoers are. 

As more and more theaters open up, and more major films are getting pushed for full theatrical releases, Spiral: From the Book of Saw opted for an exclusively theatrical run that had most predicting an opening at least in the $10-$15 million range. Unfortunately, Darren Lynn Bousman’s new entry in the series (which we called the best Saw movie yet) came in at only $8.7 million total for the weekend in 2,811 theaters. Nevertheless, that earned it the top spot for the weekend, making it the 6th time a Saw film opened at number one. 

The rest of the top ten this weekend showed similarly pessimistic results, with Warner Bros.’ latest big release, the Angelina Jolie starring thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead from director Taylor Sheridan, only managing to eke out $2.8 million for the weekend (see our positive review here), as WB put more of a push on its HBO Max streaming release than its theatrical potential. 

That film slid into the number three slot, falling behind the second week of last weekend’s winner, the Guy Ritchie directed Wrath of Man, which dropped 55% for a $3.7 million weekend gross. 

The other new releases in the top ten slid into the bottom three slots, with Finding You, Army of the Dead, and Profile all grossing less than $1 million for the weekend. It should be noted that Army of the Dead managed this feat despite only showing in 430 theaters, a much smaller theatrical run in advance of its streaming debut on Netflix next weekend. 

See below for this weekend’s full Top 10 at the box office (numbers reported by Deadline): 

01. Spiral – $8.7 million (-) – 2,811 theaters 

02. Wrath of Man – $3.7 million (-55%) – 3,007 theaters 

03. Those Who Wish Me Dead – $2.8 million (-) – 3,188 theaters 

04. Demon Slayer – $1.77 million (-36%) – 1,930 theaters 

05. Raya and the Last Dragon – $1.718 million (-11%) – 2,285 theaters 

06. Godzilla vs. Kong – $1.46 million (-27%) – 2,484 theaters 

07. Mortal Kombat – $1.32 million (-45%) – 2,465 theaters 

08. Finding You – $954K (-) – 1,312 theaters 

09. Army of the Dead – $780K (-) – 430 theaters 

10. Profile – $670K (-) – 2,033 theaters