Box Office Update: Send Help and Indie Upstarts Leading a Sluggish Weekend

The Super Bowl means movie studios are wary of releasing anything theatrically, as virtually no one goes to the movies on game day, cutting pretty heavily into business. Plus, with the Olympics happening, the outlook is more dire than ever, which is why no major studios bothered releasing any new product this weekend (only for a logjam to crop up next weekend with Withering Heights, Crime 101, and GOAT). As such, Sam Raimi’s Send Help is on a clear path to retake the top spot, with it looking at about $9–10 million via Deadline’s predictions, which would be a 50–55% drop from last week. We predicted it would repeat, but the rest of the box office outlook is quite different, with a lot of indie upstarts showing surprising muscle.

One noteworthy opener is Solo Mio, which stars Kevin James and comes from faith-based studio Angel (although the movie isn’t particularly religious). It’s opening with a better-than-expected $7.5 million. Markiplier’s Iron Lung, as expected, is seeing a big drop in week two, with it likely to fall around 67% for a $6 million weekend. This is unavoidable with viral stars, but with a $30 million gross, Markiplier has proven that social media stars can have a major impact on the box office.

Surprisingly, Vertical Entertainment is having its best opening ever, with Luc Besson’s critically maligned Dracula remake on track for $4.1 million. Meanwhile, K-pop is once again showing some serious mettle, with the concert film Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience likely making in the $5.5 million range. As expected, The Strangers: Chapter 3 is suffering from a weak opening, with it likely making in the $3.5 million range, while A24’s The Moment with Charli XCX is playing decently in a semi-expanded release (just over 500 screens) with about $1.8 million.

We’ll be back with a full wrap-up tomorrow!

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