‘Spider-Man’ Tops ‘Scream’ At Quiet Friday Box Office

In a weekend devoid of big new releases and grosses that’ll cause PTSD flashbacks to October 2020, Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $2.75 million (-21%) on Friday for a $11.11 million (-21%) seventh weekend and $736 million domestic cume. That’s a raw gross and weekend drop tied with Star Wars: The Force Awakens in that Star Wars sequel’s seventh frame. No Way Home is dealing with an unprecedented scenario, in that it’s a huge pre-Christmas blockbuster with no big early-year competition, either from new movies or Oscar season breakouts. The film will earn 1/3 of the entire $33.5 million weekend total, a weekend that was supposed to include Morbius before Sony moved it to April 1.  

Paramount and Spyglass’s Scream earned another $2.05 million (-45%) on its third Friday, setting the stage for a $6.65 million (-45%) weekend and $61.44 million 17-day total. That puts it past The Suicide Squad ($56 million) and Candyman ($61.2 million) as the third-biggest pandemic-era R-rated movie, behind (for now) The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It ($65 million) and Halloween Kills ($92 million). If the film holds up internationally from its current 60/40 split, it’ll pass Scream 4 ($98 million worldwide in 2011) and the $100 million mark by tomorrow. These aren’t blow-out numbers, but it’s good enough on a $24 million budget and enough goodwill in terms of reviews and buzz to potentially justify a Scream 6.  

Universal and Illumination’s Sing 2 continues to be the Jumanji 2/Tomorrow Never Dies of the Christmas 2021 season. The $85 million jukebox musical sequel earned another $1.02 million (-19%) on Friday for a $4.78 million (-17%) sixth weekend gross. That’ll give the Matthew McConaughey/Scarlett Johansson/Reese Witherspoon/Taron Egerton/Bono dramedy a $134.5 million domestic cume. Universal’s Redeeming Love (a straight distribution deal, natch) earned $560,000 (-62%) on Friday for a $1.85 million (-48%) second weekend gross. That’ll give D.J. Caruso’s faith-based romance a $6.53 million ten-day cume. Last weekend’s other newbie, The King’s Daughter (which had been sitting on a shelf since 2014), earned $130,000 (-50%) on Friday for a $470,000 (-35%) weekend and $1.514 million ten-day cume.  

The King’s Man will have $33.87 million by the end of its sixth weekend, while The 355 will have $13 million by day 24 as it entered the PVOD marketplace this past Friday. American Underdog earned $350,000 (-10%) on Friday for a $1.09 million (-7%) sixth weekend gross and $24.65 million domestic cume. Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife will earn $718,000 (+15%) in weekend 11 for a new $128 million cume, inching closer to the unadjusted $128.35 million cume of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. I’m guessing they’ll drag it over the finish line as they did with Venom: Let There Be Carnage (which passed Venom earlier this week). Licorice Pizza will have another strong hold in weekend ten with $580,000 (-12%) for a new $11.7 million cume.  

West Side Story earned $150,000 (-19%) on Friday for a $570,000 (-20%) eighth weekend gross. That’ll give the $100 million musical re-adaptation/remake a $36 million domestic cume. That’s sadly the third biggest “awards season release” behind Dune ($107 million) and House of Gucci ($53 million). Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley got a black-and-white reissue (+713 theaters) in weekend seven, with the acclaimed but commercially ignored film noir earning $510,000 (+123%) for the weekend to give it a new $10.331 million cume. The film arrives on Hulu and HBO Max on February 1. Belle will earn $340,000 (-40%) on weekend three for a $3.4 million 17-day cume. Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers will crack $1 million domestic in weekend six.