Box Office Report for the Week of January 7

Here we are with the first box office report of 2024. As expected, January reclaims its title as the dumping ground of movies. Blumhouse’s Night Swim is the only new movie released this weekend as more Awards-worthy films expand to more venues.

While not the number one film of the weekend, the film managed to snag $12 million in its opening weekend with a $15 million budget. As a result, it’ll turn a profit, and we’ll get Night Swim 2: Swim Harder next January. This is the Blumhouse magic: keep the budget as low as possible, and each film is guaranteed to turn a profit for the studio and more than likely overperform. While it didn’t soar in the heights of a M3GAN or Five Nights at Freddy‘s, it’s still an impressive tally for a low-budget Hollywood production, despite largely negative reviews from critics.

On the other hand, Wonka is still dominating the domestic box office, with a $14 million tally added to its impressive $465 million worldwide cume. And, on a surprisingly impressive note, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will break even and cross the $400 million tally and potentially $450 million. While it does fall short of the first film’s billion-dollar breakout, China has been tremendously helping its box office performance, with the film slated to open in Japan next week. It’ll likely be a big hit there and be the most successful DC movie of 2023.

Funnily enough, it’s the film Warner Bros. had the least confidence in. It was dumped without a world premiere, with the review embargo lifted on opening night, while one of the biggest flops of 2023, The Flash, had the CinemaCon screenings and the early reactions going on since April.

Meanwhile, Anyone but You continues to add to its previous week, with a $9.5 million tally this weekend, compared to last week’s $8.7 million. As much as box office pundits talked about the cinematic viability of the romantic comedy in a post-COVID environment, Sony Pictures was right: the film brought back rom-coms in a big way on the big screen and will end up being one of the most profitable Hollywood productions of 2023. Having Natasha Bedingfeld‘s Unwritten used as a plot point almost definitely helped, alongside the highly bankable pair of Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Wonka (Warner Bros): $14.4M (-35.8%) – 3,817 theatres
2. Night Swim (Universal): $12.0M – 3,250 theatres
3. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Warner Bros/DC): $10.6M (-41.9%) – 3,553 theatres
4. Migration (Universal): $10.2M (-39.7%) – 3,712 theatres
5. Anyone But You (Sony): $9.5M (+8.5%) – 3,055 theatres
6. The Boys in the Boat (Amazon MGM Studios): $6.0M (-28.3%) – 2,687 theatres
7. The Color Purple (Warner Bros): $4.7M (-59.4%) – 3,218 theatres
8. The Iron Claw (A24): $3.9M (-14.4%) – 2,392 theatres
9. Ferrari (NEON): $2.5M (-36.1%) – 2,121 theatres
10. Poor Things (Disney): $2.0M (-11.7%) – 750 theatres

Source: Box Office Mojo