A reggae pioneer proved to be stronger than the latest Sony superhero—at least at the box office.
Bob Marley: One Love didn’t have to worry about a thing this weekend, earning an estimated $27.7 million in North America to cruise to the box-office crown. It’s expected to collect another $5.5 million today, which would push its extended Presidents’ Day weekend total to $33.2 million.
Released on Valentine’s Day, One Love has already earned $51.1 million. Clearly, the sun is shining for this little film.
One Love was supposed to have a box-office fight on its hands with Madame Web—Sony’s latest attempt to make a successful superhero movie without Spider-Man. Alas, Madame Web got tangled by bad reviews, and the lack of audience interest left its own box-office web relatively empty. It spun an estimated $15.2 million in North America. Add in its anticipated Presidents’ Day earnings, and its total weekend haul is only expected to climb to $17.6 million.
Even though superhero movies have been in a slump lately, that’s a pretty dismal showing. Indeed, it set a dubious record for Sony. According to ScreenRant, the previous low-water mark for a Sony superhero opening was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its $35.3 million (which redeemed itself in a big way in subsequent weeks) and Morbius and its $39 million (which didn’t). Madame Web’s totals are barely half of what Into the Spider-Verse earned. You don’t need Madame Web’s forecasting abilities to see a dim box-office run in her film’s future.
Argylle finished third this weekend, banking another $4.7 million to push its own overall gross to $36.5 million. Migration coasted into fourth place with $3.8 million. Over its nine-week run, the animated family film has banked $114.8 million.
The Chosen returned to the top five—but barely. Its latest release—episodes four-through-six of Season Four—earned more than $3.4 million, according to early estimates, pushing it just ahead of Wonka for fifth place. (Final figures could have an impact on this particular race, though, so check back.)
The fourth new release this weekend, Land of the Bad, had a bad beginning itself. The war film earned a disappointing $1.8 million to finish 10th.
One Response
Off-topic but I didn’t notice Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was getting a theatrical re-release until I randomly noticed Bob had posted a review for it. “Goodness,” I said, “That movie is probably older than some of this site’s readers.” I’ve heard better things about the extended edition, but the original version was most definitely for fans only, and I’d already beaten the game twice.
On the topic of extended editions, y’all might want to paste a small notice on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies that the extended edition was actually given a higher rating of R than the theatrical version received.