‘Argylle’ Leads Super Bowl Weekend, Lowest 2024 YTD

SUNDAY AM UPDATE: How bad was this year’s Super Bowl weekend? Realize that Kenneth Branagh’s romance mystery misfire, Death on the Nile, opened to more over the Big Game weekend ($12.8M) two years ago, and that’s when female moviegoers were scared of Omicron!

Super Bowl weekend, despite its damper on Sunday business, used to be a box office frame that could still yield results, even for films aimed at dudes. Like in 2015, when the sixth weekend of American Sniper drummed up $30.7 million, or in 2020, when the third weekend of Bad Boys for Life did $17.6M.

Last year’s Super Bowl weekend totaled $52.6M, per Box Office Mojo, led by Warner Bros’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance with an $8.3M opening. This year, we’re lower at $40M, -24% from a year ago and that’s because there isn’t a notable major studio wide release. That’s also the lowest weekend we’ve had year to date at the box office for 2024. BTW, that’s not the lowest total weekend for Super Bowl at the box office; that belonged to the Covid-stricken 2021 when all movies totaled $7.7M.

In terms of what’s changed since Friday in the standings — not much; it’s just gotten a little lower.

This Super Bowl weekend, we have Apple Original Films’ poorly received Matthew Vaughn-directed Argylle is now at $6.5M, down 63% in Weekend 2, for what will be a 10-day result of $28.8M at 3,605 theaters. The end game here at the domestic box office per industry sources is $45M, which is the lowest of the Apple Original Movies after the Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon ($67.8M) and Napoleon ($61.5M).

Focus Features tried to counterprogram the weekend with the Zelda Williams teenage genre comedy Lisa Frankenstein, aimed at young women and arthouse audiences. Booked at 3,143 theaters, it’s just under its $4M weekend at $3.8M. It was never expected to be Mean Girls, rather a teenage comedy aimed at highbrow crowds ala 2019’s Booksmart — but that came in higher at $6.9M at 2,505 theaters.

Lisa Frankenstein had some social media wattage in its cast, read Cole Sprouse with 41.5M followers, Lisa Soberano at 29.6M fans, Jenna Davis at 9.3M, Katherine Newton at 2.4M and director Zelda Williams at 659K.

However, social media analytics corp RelishMix saw the clouds on Lisa Frankenstein: “The movie was getting some pushback from those dismissing it as a ‘tween’ movie, comparing its innocuous innocence to a Disney Channel project — however the inclusion of actor Cole Sprouse (made famous by his childhood stint on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and The Suite Life on Deck) might be furthering this connection. While the similar atmosphere to Burton and Depp’s filmography has many excited, some feel this is ripping off the style of those individuals, even describing this film as ‘bubble gum.’”

Lisa Frankenstein, scripted by Oscar winner Diablo Cody, follows a girl who has a crush on a dead person. After a set of horrific circumstances brings him back to life, the two embark on a journey to find love, happiness — and a few missing body parts. The movie, which didn’t win over critics at 51% Rotten, stars Cole Sprouse and Kathryn Newton. RT audience score is better at 77%; ditto CinemaScore which gave it a B.

Women showed up at 58%, with 69% of those attending between 18-34 and the biggest demo (no surprise) being 18-24 at 35%. Diversity demos were 57% Caucasian, 22% Hispanic and Latino, 7% Black, and 8% Asian. Most of the movie’s business is in the East, South Central and West, with the AMC Burbank the top-grossing venue for the title, with close to $15K since Thursday night.

Friday’s $1.74M take for the pic includes $700,000 from previews Thursday night. By the way, that $4M was at the low end of tracking estimates, which were between $4M-$6M. The pic is cheap at $13M before P&A. Focus Features will be fine.

The fifth weekend of Amazon MGM’s Jason Statham movie The Beekeeper ranks third, with a Friday of $962K, a three-day of $3.4M at 3,057 theaters, -35%, and running total of $54.6M. That result is ahead of such Statham action titles as Crank ($28M), The Mechanic ($29M), all three Transporter movies, and The Expendables 3 ($39M). But it’s a far jump past The Meg 2 ($83M), the next solo benchmark for the British star.

Some Super Bowl trivia: per Comscore, since 2006, the highest grossing No. 1 movies over Super Bowl weekend were Disney’s The Hannah Montana: Miley Cyrus concert film from 2008 with a $31.1M opening, the sixth weekend play of American Sniper from 2015 ($30.66M) and the Channing Tatum romance movie Dear John from 2010 ($30.46M opening).

Disney re-released the Pixar movie they pulled from the 2022 theatrical calendar for Disney+, Turning Red. It didn’t do much with a 3-day of $535K at 1,560 theaters and that’s because the studio isn’t really pushing these re-releases. The Oscar-winning Soul, which Disney also released in theaters stateside for the first time back in early January, only grossed $946K.

The chart:

1.) Argylle (App/Uni) 3,605 theaters, Fri $1.96M (-70%) Sat $3.2M Sun $1.2M 3-day $6.5M (-62%) Total $28.8M/ Wk 2

2.) Lisa Frankenstein (Foc) 3,144 theaters, Fri $1.74M, Sat $1.3M Sun $690K, 3-day $3.8M/Wk 1

3.) The Beekeeper (AMZ MGM) 3,057 (-220) theaters, Fri $962K (-26%) $1.8M Sun $650K 3-day $3.4M (-35%), Total $54.6M/Wk 5

4.) Wonka (WB) 2,764 (-146) theaters, Fri $775K (-25%) Sat $1.68M Sun $670K 3-day $3.125M (-33%), Total $205.2M/Wk 9

5.) The Chosen (Fath) 1,955 (-304) Fri $852K (-51%) Sat $1.35M Sun $947K 3-day $3.15M (-57%)/Total $12.5M/Wk 2

6.) Migration (Ill/Uni) 2,684 (-146) Fri $660K (-22%) Sat $1.6M Sun $730K 3-day $3M (-28%), Total $110.1M/ Wk 8

7.) Anyone But You (Sony) 2,805 (+186) Fri $935K (-11%) Sat $1.34M Sun $425K 3-day $2.7M (-20%),Total $80.1M/Wk 8

8.) Mean Girls (Par) 2,620 (-487) theaters, Fri $565K (-44%) Sat $1M Sun $355K 3-day $1.92M (-50%), Total $69.1M/Wk 5

9.) Dune (re) (Leg/WB) 2,100 theaters, Fri $570K Sat $806K Sun $284K 3-day $1.66M Total $110.55M/Wk 121

10.) American Fiction (AMZ MGM) 1,462 (-440) theaters, $402K (-35%) Sat $662K Sun $265K 3-day $1.32M (-45%), Total $17.3M/Wk 9