By: Keaton Marcus

Diving into the weekend, the newest box office phenomenon Bad Boys for Life easily topped for a third time straight on the Super Bowl weekend. Otherwise, 1917 and Dolittle topped 2020’s newest horror disappointment Gretel & Hansel, which edged out The Gentlemen. Far behind in tenth was action thriller The Rhythm Section, which was a disaster.

Being the focus of another weak Super Bowl weekend was Sony’s Bad Boys for Life which three-peated, and still managed to make some good old cash. Bringing in an estimated 17.7M, the action comedy dropped a rock-solid 48% from its sophomore session, and capped a monster 148M domestically. Internationally, things are going strong, with the film taking in another 30.8M from 58 markets, contributing to a foreign gross of 142.7M and an impressive worldwide bout of 290.7M, and it will surely top 300M this week.

In runner-up, Universal’s 1917 pulled in 9.7M from its sixth weekend of release, down just 39% from last weekend, and reaching a stunning 119.2M in North America. Overseas, the movie grossed 20.9M from 61 material markets, with new openings in Russia, Taiwan, Sweden and Thailand, making for an international gross of 129.8M and a global total of 249M.

Thirdly, Universal is here again with Dolittle which grossed an estimated 7.7M in its third weekend, indicating a drop of 37% and a still-weak domestic sales total of 55.2M. In the other parts of the world, things aren’t going too much better, where it earned another 17.7M from 63 overseas markets, giving way for a 71.4M foreign total, and a worldwide gross of 126.6M.

In fourth was a new release, UAR’s horror flick Gretel & Hansel which was the fourth disappointment of its genre in just the first five weeks of 2020, scaring up a mere 6.1M from 3,007 locations, averaging just $2,012 per-screen. While this isn’t too far behind its 7M pre-weekend expectations, it makes us wonder if audiences might be done with the once cherished genre. However, with a reported budget of only 5M, it seems pretty easy to break even. Reviews weren’t terrific either, with critics giving it a mixed 56% “Rotten” on RT, which despite being much better than The Turning’s 13%, and The Grudge’s 15%, audiences also didn’t enjoy the revisionist tale, giving it a mediocre C- CinemaScore, which doesn’t bode well for the future.

Rounding out the top five was STX Entertainment’s The Gentlemen which earned 6M in its sophomore session, sliding 44% and having now dug up a so-so 20.4M domestically after 10 days in release. Internationally, the pic added another 4M for a foreign cume of 28M and a worldwide gross of 48.4M.

All the way back in tenth was Paramount’s actioner The Rhythm Section which completely bombed with a meek 2.8M from 3,049 sites, coming with an embarrassing average of $918 per-screen. This isn’t just a horrible debut, or underperforming compared to its 10M expectations, it also ranks as the worst opening of all-time for a movie starting in over 3,000 theaters stateside. That isn’t good news for star Blake Lively, whose performance was praised among the muck of many negative reviews, resulting in a 33% “Rotten” and a less-than-stellar C+ CinemaScore.

Next weekend, there’s some hope for a box office comeback. The face of this potential revolt is WB and the DCEU’s first R-rated film Birds of Prey, with Margot Robbie returning to portray the iconic Harley Quinn. Social media reactions are already superb, and expectations say that a 55M+ debut isn’t impossible from over 4,100 theaters.

TOP FIVE:

Bad Boys for Life
1917
Dolittle
Gretel & Hansel
The Gentlemen