‘Sing 2’ Passes $100 Million Domestic

In Friday box office news not related to The 355 ($1.71 million) or Spider-Man: No Way Home ($8.3 million), Illumination’s Sing 2 earned another $2.65 million (-59%) on the very day it debuted on PVOD. Universal’s big deal with AMC (and the other chains) allowed them to put theatrical releases on PVOD ($20 for a 48-hour rental) in as little as 17 days after opening day, with 31 days afforded for films that opened above $50 million. Now for an “opened on a Friday” release, day 17 is a Sunday so the films in question usually arrive that following Thursday or Friday (21 days, or about 3 weeks, after opening). But since Sing 2 opened on a Wednesday, day 17 was yesterday so out it went.  

Nonetheless, with $99.713 million in 17 days of domestic release, it’ll pass $100 million by the end of this sentence. That makes Illumination’s jukebox musical the first animated film to pass $100 million domestic since Frozen II ($477 million from a $130 million debut) in November 2019. And considering Disney just shunted Turning Red to Disney+ in leu of a theatrical release (in participating territories), the Matthew McConaughey/Scarlett Johansson/Bono-led sequel will be the last until (best-case-scenario) DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys in late April or (more likely) Pixar’s Lightyear (in mid-June, unless it too becomes a Disney+ sacrificial lamb). The $85 million release should earn around $10.3 million (-49%) in weekend three for a $107 million domestic and (give or take new territories) $175 million global cume. 

The rest of the domestic box office is ugly. 20th Century Studios’ The King’s Man earned $900,000 (-28%) on its third Friday for a likely $3.14 million (-31%) weekend and $25 million 19-day domestic cume. Lionsgate’s American Underdog grossed another $730,000 (-46%) on Friday for a $2.36 million (-40%) weekend and $18.7 million 16-day cume. That’s sadly more than every major Oscar season release save for Warner Bros.’ Dune ($107 million), 20th Century Studios’ West Side Story ($32 million) and MGM’s House of Gucci ($50 million). It’s also essentially tied with the over/under $17 million opening weekends of The Shack and I Can Only Imagine. Warner Bros.’ The Matrix Resurrections earned $500,000 (-52%) on Friday for a $1.75 million (-55%) weekend and a mere $34.2 million 19-day cume. 

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza is holding its own, at least by pandemic-era standards. The well-reviewed Cooper Hoffman/Alana Haim coming-of-age dramedy earned $286,075 (-20%) for a likely $990,000 (-24%) seventh-weekend gross in 772 theaters, giving the film an $8.317 million 24-day domestic cume. That’s not a scratch on the film’s alleged $40 million budget, but A) studios don’t bankroll Paul Thomas Anderson movies for windfalls and B) it should stick around presuming it ends up with major Oscar nominations come February 8. Ghostbusters: Afterlife will have around $125 million by tomorrow, meaning it will indeed crawl past the $126 million domestic cume of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. We’ll see if Sing 2 catches up with it to seize the ninth spot for last year’s biggest domestic grossers.