Box Office Report for the Week of March 24

The Ghostbusters answered the call this weekend, as the latest film in the franchise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, raked up a killer $45 million opening weekend, the second-best opening for the franchise, with the 2016 reboot still the first. We all know how the commercial turnout for that movie went, but there’s hope the film could leg out the next few weeks despite mixed reviews from critics. Still, the Ghostbusters will face a formidable foe next week with the arrival of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, poised to smash the box office for Easter weekend.

Since Amazon decided not to release Road House in cinemas, the competition for new releases was minimal. Sydney Sweeney led another record-breaking film with Immaculate, now NEON’s highest-grossing opening ever, with a $5 million tally on a $9 million budget. The film has already made half its money back and obliterated Ferrari‘s $3.9 million Christmas opening last year.

Perhaps this one has more chance to leg out since word of mouth is all over the place. The screening I attended was quite muted, so it’s great to see a movie with diverse perspectives that isn’t leaving audiences indifferent. Speaking of, NEON has been smartly taking angry tweets from moviegoers who took offense with this so-called “blasphemous” horror movie and turned them into pullquote posters. One such example can be seen below:

Hey, whatever works, right?

Another independent horror movie was released this weekend, with IFC’s Late Night with the Devil. However, this one has been embroiled in massive controversy over its use of generative AI for select cutscenes used in the film. Did this impact its commercial prospects? It’s hard to tell since the film didn’t have large projections for its opening weekend despite David Dastmalchian leading it.

However, it did make over $2 million domestically and, even creepier, made $666.666 this Sunday. Is it true, or is it a marketing stunt? Who knows, but Disney does have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever with The First Omen‘s marketing as it approaches its April 5th release date.

Here’s the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony): $45.2M – 4,345 theatres
2. Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros): $17.6M (-38.3%) – 3,437 theatres
3. Kung Fu Panda 4 (Universal): $16.8M (-44.3%) – 3,805 theatres
4. Immaculate (NEON): $5.3M – 2,354 theatres
5. Arthur the King (Lionsgate): $4.3M (-42.3%) – 3,003 theatres
6. Late Night with the Devil (IFC Films): $2.83M – 1,034 theatres
7. Imaginary (Lionsgate): $2.8M (-49.6%) – 2,513 theatres
8. Love Lies Bleeding (A24): $1.5M (-36.7%) – 1,828 theatres
9. Cabrini (Angel Studios): $1.4M (-49.2%) – 1,765 theatres
10. Bob Marley: One Love (Paramount): $1.1M (-51.7%) – 1,266 theatres

Source: Comscore