Box Office Report for the Week of January 28

With little to no new releases this weekend, audiences have turned, in droves, to the Oscar nominees, with Poor Things, American Fiction, and Godzilla Minus One receiving the biggest boost at the domestic box office since their respective releases. Per screen, Poor Things and American Fiction are doing extremely well, with Godzilla Minus One also adding to its tally as one of the highest-grossing international releases in 2023 and benefitting from the release of Godzilla Minus One: Minus Color, a black & white version of Takashi Yamazaki’s movie.

On the other hand, The Beekeeper managed to crawl to the top of the box office this weekend with a neat $7 million tally. It’s of no surprise that Amazon wants to partner once more with David Ayer and Jason Statham, with the streamer announcing that their latest collaboration, Levon’s Trade, to film in the spring, with Sylvester Stallone writing the screenplay. A theatrical release is also planned, which is a no-brainer after the success of The Beekeeper. However, there’s still time to change plans for Road House, especially after director Doug Liman wrote an impassioned piece on Deadline criticizing Amazon for its decision to release it exclusively on Prime Video, depriving it of a theatrical release, resulting in the filmmaker boycotting its SXSW premiere.

The only new “wide” release this weekend is Siddharth Anand‘s Fighter, a hotly anticipated Bollywood package starring Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone. Despite largely negative reviews, the film ended up at the sixth domestic spot and grossed $3.7 million in 662 theatres, which includes select Premium Large Format screens and IMAX 3D. With a relatively quiet slate for the next few months due to the effects of the strike, expect more international releases to take advantage of Premium Formats. While Fighter wasn’t well-received by critics, it was still going to be massively successful, as this is Hrithik’s third collaboration with Anand after Bang! Bang! and War, two highly profitable Indian films.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is also officially a commercial success — with the film crossing the $400 million international mark, thanks to markets like Japan and China. Funny how the DC movie that Warner Bros. had the least confidence in and released it with little to no fanfare was the most successful of them all, despite no world premiere and a lack of a traditional press tour. Reviews weren’t great either, which is likely why many thought it would flop, but it actually managed to break even. Props to James Wan for always delivering at the box office, no matter how his films are received.

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

1. The Beekeeper (Amazon MGM Studios): $7.4M (-13.7%) – 3,337 theatres
2. Mean Girls (Paramount): $7.3M (-37.4%) – 3,544 theatres
3. Wonka (Warner Bros): $5.9M (-12%) – 3,014 theatres
4. Migration (Universal): $5.1M (-5.7%) – 2,970 theatres
5. Anyone But You (Sony): $4.8M (-11.2%) – 2,885 theatres
6. Fighter (Paramount): $3.7M – 662 theatres
7. Poor Things (Disney): $3.0M (+43.1%) – 2,300 theatres
8. American Fiction (Amazon MGM Studios): $2.8M (+65%) – 1,702 theatres
9. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Warner Bros/DC): $2.8M (-22.9%) – 2,118 theatres
10. Godzilla Minus One (Toho): $2.6M (+275.6%) – 2,051 theatres

Source: Comscore