‘The Bad Guys’ Leads Quiet Pre-‘Doctor Strange’ Box Office Weekend

As typical for a weekend before the release of a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, there were no major new releases on the box office charts. That left Universal/DreamWorks’ “The Bad Guys” to easily hold the No. 1 spot with a $16.1 million second weekend and a $44.4 million domestic total.

Of the three non-franchise films that came out last weekend, “The Bad Guys” had the strongest hold with just a 33% drop from its $23.9 million opening weekend, putting the film on its way to crossing $100 million at the worldwide box office. Such a hold indicates that “The Bad Guys” is getting traction among families as they continue to return to theaters this spring — and that could allow it to leg out through May as counterprogramming to “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is in second with $11.4 million in its fourth weekend, passing the first “Sonic” to become the highest grossing video game adaptation in domestic box office history with $160.9 million grossed and over $300 million grossed worldwide.

Warner Bros.’ “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is third with $8.3 million in its third weekend. That gives the Wizarding World film a domestic total of $79.5 million, down a steep 41% from the $134.5 million that “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” made through three weekends in 2018.

Below these two sequels on the box office charts are the three major original films currently on offer in theaters: Focus/New Regency’s “The Northman,” A24/AGBO’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Lionsgate’s “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”

Of those three, “Everything Everywhere” continues to have the strongest legs, posting a 2% increase in its sixth weekend as it adds $5.5 million and reaches a $35 million domestic total. If these legs continue even with “Doctor Strange 2” in theaters, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” could pass $50 million, topping “Uncut Gems” as A24’s highest grossing film ever.

But “The Northman” and “Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” did not show such movement; and though arthouse theater owners who spoke to TheWrap at CinemaCon praised Focus and Lionsgate for releasing films that helped fuel their most profitable weekends since reopening last year, neither film looks like they will have the lasting power to stay out of the red.

“The Northman” fell 49% from its $12.5 million opening weekend for $6.3 million weekend total and a 10-day domestic box office total of $22.8 million. Overseas, the Viking revenge film added $4.4 million to give it a global total of $41.6 million against a $70 million production budget before marketing. “The Northman,” which Focus co-produced with New Regency, Square Peg and Perfect World Pictures, is expected to be released as a video on-demand title shortly after next weekend.

“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” will also likely need post-theatrical revenue to turn a profit despite strong word-of-mouth, adding $3.9 million this weekend for a 45% drop from its $7.1 million opening and a $13.5 million 10-day total. The Nicolas Cage meta-comedy had a reported budget of $30 million before marketing.

The sole new release in the Top 10 this weekend, was Open Road/Briarcliff’s “Memory,” a Liam Neeson action film about a hitman with early onset dementia who is on the run. The film grossed just $3.1 million in its opening weekend from 2,555 theaters, giving it the No. 8 spot on the charts. “Memory” has Rotten Tomatoes scores of 30% critics and 81% audience.