Box Office Report for the Week of March 30

It’s another slow weekend at the movie theatres, though with far more releases for moviegoers to enjoy. With Snow White enduring a massive freefall from last weekend’s disastrous box office results, David Ayer and Jason Statham‘s blue-collar actioner A Working Man dethroned the fairest of them all at the movies this weekend with a modest $15 million opening. While Statham’s latest collaboration with Ayer did not receive as many positive reviews as their previous film The Beekeeper, it still remains a successful mid-budget partnership, paving the way for The Beekeeper 2 to be another commercial hit. However, Ayer is not returning to the director’s chair for the sequel. Indonesian genre filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto will instead helm it, something all of us action aficionados are looking forward very much.

With the Biblical television series The Chosen now becoming a full-fledged cinematic event, it isn’t surprising that the Fathom Events screenings of the first bulk of episodes of the fifth season, titled The Last Supper, did very well, with an $11.4 million tally this weekend. It was even bolstered by Early Access IMAX screenings, a first for the Dallas Jenkins-created series on The New Testament, depicting the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

As for other mid-budget blockbusters of the weekend, Jaume Collet-Serra‘s The Woman in the Yard managed to have quite a successful opening, with a $9.4 million cume on a $12 million budget, despite the film not screening for press and the lack of tangible word-of-mouth prior to its release. I personally loved the film and think it’s Collet-Serra’s best directorial effort. However, I can also understand why Universal buried the release of the movie, because it is not at all what the trailers make it out to be, and is designed to alienate audiences who are looking for a more traditional ghost story. The reviews are mixed, but, if you are looking for a singular experience in the world of supernatural horror, it may be up your alley and could get a critical reappraisal that David Prior‘s The Empty Man received when more eyes saw the film upon its release on VOD.

Meanwhile, A24’s Death of a Unicorn didn’t bite audiences, with a $5.8 million opening on a $15 million budget. The independent, auteur-driven studio is looking to do more commercially-friendly work, and with such a well-mounted cast, you would think one of their first commercial endeavors would titillate audience interest. Sadly, the film’s mixed-to-negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth didn’t attract many viewers to the picture, despite a more blockbuster-driven approach than past titles from A24.

There is, however, one glimmer of hope this weekend that will make all moviegoers happy. You see, for some unexplained reason, OpenAI launched “Studio Ghibli”-generated pictures on ChatGPT, and they have been flooding the internet, even though Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki called Artificial Intelligence “an insult to life itself.” These “generated” images of Ghibli’s house style aren’t just an insult to life itself, but to art as well, bringing virtually nothing impactful to society. Coincidentally, GKIDS re-released Miyazaki’s Princess Mononke this week in IMAX, with a brand-new 4K restoration.

During its first day, the film grossed over $1 million, and has now beat its entire domestic run in 1998 with a $4 million tally in 330 IMAX venues. That’s a per-screen average of more than $12,000, and, if you look at your local cinema’s seating maps, chances are these showings of Mononoke are entirely sold out. If you want to stick against OpenAI and their anti-art Studio Ghibli-style nonsense, the best way to do it is to see an actual work of art from Studio Ghibli, acting as a reminder of the limitless potential of animation cinema as one of the greatest and most human artistic expressions the medium has invented. Perhaps you’re not interested in any of the latest motion picture offerings, and I wouldn’t blame you.

It hasn’t been a great start for 2025 in film (though The Woman in the Yard is undoubtedly worth your time). However, if you live next to an IMAX theater playing Miyazaki’s animated classic, there isn’t a better choice to go and show Sam Altman and his anti-art band of fools who the true artists are, and why Miyazaki’s films will always stand the test of time, and his OpenAI adds nothing meaningful to our society. The ball is in your court.

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

1. A Working Man (Amazon MGM Studios): $15.2M – 3,262 theatres
2. Snow White (Disney): $14.2M (-66.3%) – 4,200 theatres
3. The Chosen: The Last Supper – Part 1 (Fathom Events): $11.4M – 2,478 theatres
4. The Woman in the Yard (Universal): $9.4M – 2,842 theatres
5. Death of a Unicorn (A24): $5.7M – 3,050 theatres
6. Princess Mononoke – 4K IMAX Re-Release (GKIDS): $4.0M – 330 theatres
7. Captain America: Brave New World (Disney): $2.8M (-30%) – 2,380 theatres
8. Black Bag (Universal): $2.1M (-50%) – 2,065 theatres
9. Mickey 17 (Warner Bros): $1.9M (-47.8%) – 1,648 theatres
10. Novocaine (Paramount): $1.4M (-61%) – 2,273 theatres

Source: Comscore