411 Box Office Report: Bob Marley: One Love Rules For Second Weekend

Bob Marley ruled the box office for a second weekend, with One Love retaining its spot at #1. The biopic of the reggae icon brought in $13.5 million over its second frame, down an expected 53% from its strong opening weekend. That’s a heftier drop than the last big music biopic, Elvis, which fell 41% in its second weekend back in July of 2022.

Still, the numbers are strong overall for One Love, which has now tallied $71.2 million domestically and $120.6 million worldwide against a budget of $70 million. Even with that large budget, the film looks like a solid hit for Paramount Pictures and should be able to reach $100 million domestically without too much of an issue, with overseas numbers pushing the film into profitable territory.

Coming in at #2 was Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To the Hashira Training. The film, which incorporates the final season three episode and first season four episode of the anime series, performed about as expected with $11.6 million. The start is slightly above the $10.1 million that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba—To the Swordsmith Village opened to in March of last year.

The Demon Slayer franchise has been a consistently profitable one for Crunchyroll at the box office, and this entry is no exception. The budget is hard to suss out for a number of reasons (including the fact that it comes from the series), but with $16.7 million overseas thus far to make a $28.3 million worldwide gross it’s off to a good start. Anime tends to be quite frontloaded, so this will drop down the charts quickly but should end with around $18 million or so in the US.

Coming in at #3 was the faith-based drama Ordinary Angels. The Lionsgate flick brought in $6.5 million for the weekend, slightly below the high single digit expectations for the film. It’s not the best start the studio could have imagined by any stretch – compare it to the $15 million that Jesus Revolution started with at the same weekend last year – but it’s far from disastrous for a number of reasons.

Faith-based films tend to narrow its marketing focus to target the church-going crowds for obvious reasons. With this film’s case, even that was muted. Lionsgate didn’t market the film heavily despite strong reviews; the movie stands at an 81% aggregated score on Rotten Tomatoes. The reason for that low marketing was post-strike cuts on marketing expenses in order to keep costs low and make profit when lower-budgeted films hit digital and streaming (more on that later).

And that low budget is one thing that Ordinary Angels has going for it. The film cost just $12 million, meaning that even with the low opening this film is looking to be in decent shape – especially when you consider the strong word of mouth. The movie has an A+ CinemaScore and a 99% RT audience score. Now, word of mouth is a bit more limited in its effects with faith-based films as a rule, but Angels should be able to get to at least $18 million or so domestically. That will put it on the path to success for the studio.

On the flip side, Madame Web is continuing to try and stem the spill of red ink as it slipped to #4 in its second week with $6 million. That is a 61% drop from its opening weekend – which is not great, but better than what was expected and well above the 74% drop of Morbius as well as some of the 2023 superhero disappointments like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (70%), The Flash (72%), and The Marvels (78%).

To be clear, while this is “good” news for the film it’s a silver lining on a dark cloud. Madame Web has grossed $35.4 million domestically and $77.4 million worldwide, which are better numbers than many expected but still a film headed toward at least some loss. The movie was relatively inexpensive for a superhero film with an $80 million budget, but with a likely $55 million to $60 million stateside total it will probably end up being a minor money loser for Sony even when international grosses are tallied. Still, “minor money loser” is better than what many were expecting here.

Migration continues to do well, down 22% to $3 million in its 10th weekend. That puts Illumination and Universal’s animated comedy up to $120.4 million in the US and $268.8 million worldwide, very profitable against a $72 million budget. Its final domestic total now looks to be around $128 million or so.

Argylle dropped 43% in its fourth weekend to bring in $2.8 million. The action comedy has $41.7 million domestically and $86.5 million worldwide, a money loser for Apple Original Films (not that they’re worried about that, as they consider this a loss leader to market their services like Apple TV+) against a budget of $200 million. It will end its domestic run at around $50 million

Wonka rung up another $2.5 million for the weekend, down 28% in its 11th frame. The Timothee Chalamet vehicle has reached $214.5 million domestically and $617.2 million worldwide, making it the eighth highest-grossing film of 2023 from a worldwide perspective. It’s obviously a massive hit against a $125 million budget and should end its North American run around $220 million.

Ethan Coen’s new film opened with a peep, as Drive-Away Dolls started off with just $2.4 million. That’s more or less where it was expected to start. The Focus Features-distributed film was below the start for the studio’s last release, Lisa Frankenstein, which opened to $3.7 million a couple of weeks ago.

All that said, this is not at all a surprise. The film is a lesbian sex comedy/road trip crime comedy, not exactly a combination of genres that screams “mainstream hit.” Add in the fact that the film has good-but-not-great reviews (a 66% on RT) and lackluster-to-bad word of mouth (a C CinemaScore and a 37% RT audience rating) ad this was coming into the weekend with several strikes against it despite the name value of Coen.

All of that, along with the aforementioned post-strike attitudes among studios, is why the film was barely marketed. Drive-Away Dolls was always intended to get a theatrical release in order to act as publicity before its digital release in just two weeks, something that can be seen with the film getting a wide release instead of the usual platformed release given to Coen films. (Focus essentially did the same with Lisa Frankenstein, which hits digital this coming Friday.) Dolls won’t get much past $6 million domestically but will be in fine shape.

The Beekeeper was down 39% in its seventh weekend with $2 million. The Jason Statham action thriller is a big hit for Amazon-MGM with $63.1 million domestically and $149.6 million worldwide against a $40 million production budget. It will close out around $67 million or so.

The Chosen: Season 4 Episodes 4-6 took the expected drop as the Fathom release fell 49% in its second and final weekend to $1.8 million. The faith-based drama episodes will be exiting theaters on Thursday to make way for the next batch of episodes. They have $7.9 million domestically and should finish off with around $9 million.

Next weekend will see the box office return to life as Dune: Part Two gives us our first actual blockbuster of 2024. The sci-fi action film should get off to a start of $65 million-plus. The Chosen: Season 4 Episodes 7 – 8 opens on Tuesday and should have a first-weekend gross in the mid-single digits.

BOX OFFICE TOP TEN (Three-Day Domestic Numbers)
1. Bob Marley: One Love – $13.5 million ($71.2 million total, $120.6 million WW)
2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To the Hashira Training – $11.6 million ($11.6 million total, $28.3 million WW)
3. Ordinary Angels – $6.5 million ($6.5 million total, $6.5 million WW)
4. Madame Web – $6 million ($35.4 million total, $77.4 million WW)
5. Migration – $3 million ($120.4 million total, $268.8 million WW)
6. Argylle – $2.8 million ($41.7 million total, $86.5 million WW)
7. Wonka – $2.5 million ($214.5 million total, $617.2 million WW)
8. Drive-Away Dolls – $2.4 million ($2.4 million total, $2.6 million WW)
9. The Beekeeper – $2 million ($63.1 million total, $149.6 million WW)
10. The Chosen: Season 4 Episodes 4-6 – $1.8 million ($7.9 million total, $7.9 million WW)