Madame Web plunges, and Drive Away Dolls runs out of gas


Bob Marley tops a slow weekend at te box office, with Madame Web plunging and Drive Away Dolls flopping in wide release.

The final weekend box office numbers are in, and Bob Marley: One Love, the crowd-pleasing biopic, continues to do well, with an estimated gross of $13.5 million over the weekend. It dropped a comparatively modest 53% at the box office thanks to strong word-of-mouth (although the hold was less than I thought in my predictions). It’s well on its way to north of $100 million domestically.

However, for holdovers, the picture was much less rosy for Madame Web, which plunged to fourth place with a 61% drop. Now, it should be said that the drop isn’t as severe as the ones faced by The Marvels (78%) and Morbius (74%) in their second weekends, although both movies opened far stronger than Madame Web did. With a $6 million weekend and a $35.4 million total, it seems unlikely this film will gross the $45 million mark, a disaster for a big-budget superhero film.

The Dakota Johnson vehicle was soundly beaten in its second weekend by another Sony film, the anime Demon Slayer: To The Hashira Training, which made $11.575 million this weekend and posted (by far) the best per-screen average, with close to $6k a screen. These anime releases tend to be front-loaded, but even still, that’s a solid number. The faith-based Ordinary Angels did softer numbers than expected, with a three-day haul of $6.5 million, a surprise given the A+ CinemaScore rating. However, this Hilary Swank/ Alan Ritchson movie may have legs and play well all the way through March. It’s a marathon and not a sprint for Christian movies at the box office.

Illumination’s Migration also showed some strong legs at the box office, with $3 million over the weekend. After a soft Christmas opening, which saw it get trounced by Wonka, the film was legged out to north of $120 million domestically. Argylle came in sixth place with a $2.8 million weekend, with it losing over 500 screens, meaning its time in theaters is pretty much over. With a $41 million domestic total, it’s doubtful this will crack $50 million. Expect a quick release to Apple TV+, with the company financing the $200 million spy flick. 

Next weekend sees the release of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. That film’s star, Timothee Chalamet’s last big hit, Wonka, had another strong showing, earning over $2.5 million, with it now creeping up on a $215 million domestic total – which is terrific for this family gem (it was a lot better than any of us expected, wasn’t it?). 

Drive-Away Dolls (1)

The weekend’s other big new release, Drive Away Dolls, directed by Ethan Coen of the Coen Bros, totally whiffed at the box office, with a $2.4 million total and a horrible per-screen average of just over $1k. People didn’t seem to care for this star-studded, wannabe midnight movie. Jason Statham’s sleeper hit, The Beekeeper, did $1.9 million, with it likely to pass $65 million domestically by next weekend. Finally, the big-screen release of the Christian TV show, The Chosen, fell to tenth place with a $1.795 million total, which isn’t bad for a movie you can stream for free online.

Did you see anything this weekend? Let us know in the comments!