Mickey 17’s underwhelming bow meekly kicks off March 2025 at the box office

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This weekend saw the arrival of a significant new film, titled “Mickey 17.” Regrettably for cinema owners, this movie didn’t quite resonate with audiences, as its unusual sci-fi concept failed to capture mainstream popularity. The film earned just $19.1 million during its opening weekend, which is not an impressive start considering it cost $118 million to produce. It’s often challenging to make science fiction and dark comedies successful at the box office, as these genres seem to have a naturally limited appeal for the general public. As a result, “Mickey 17” opened with $9.7 million less than “Edge of Tomorrow,” managed 37% more than “The Creator’s” initial earnings of $14.07 million, and nearly matched “Ad Astra’s” opening figure of $19 million.

The trailers and posters for “Mickey 17” were quite impressive, setting it apart from other films. However, Warner Bros. was hesitant to announce a definitive release date, which caused some uncertainty. The main issue, though, was that “Mickey 17” had inherent limitations in terms of box office success. Robert Pattinson hasn’t had a significant box office hit apart from “The Batman” and his non-“Twilight” films, and the book it’s based on isn’t widely recognized. Moreover, director Bong Joon-ho chose not to create a safe film or cater to existing market demands, which might have affected its commercial potential.

If Mickey 17 doesn’t falter in its next week, it’s likely to gross approximately $50-55 million domestically. Given the rather ambiguous 2024 for Warner Bros. Pictures at the box office, there’s a strong desire for a comeback. Neither Alto Knights nor A Minecraft Movie seem capable of dominating the box office, so there’s high hope that Sinners and Superman can help revitalize the studio.

Title “Captain America: Brave New World” saw a significant decrease in premium screens this past weekend, yet managed to avoid a complete downturn with a 43% drop. With a $8.5 million fourth weekend gross, the figure isn’t particularly impressive for a high-budget superhero film, but it does add $8.5 million to the movie’s domestic total, now standing at $176.58 million. Will it gather the additional $23.42 million to surpass $200 million domestically? At this moment, it seems likely to fall just short, but predictions can be unpredictable.

Remarkably, even the third-largest film in America over the weekend only earned $4.2 million. This title goes to Last Breath, which saw a 47% decrease this week and brought in an additional $4.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $14.6 million. With domestic earnings approaching $20 million, it seems likely that this movie will achieve that milestone. Meanwhile, The Monkey maintained well with a 39% drop and an extra $3.9 million in revenue. Now in its 17th day of release, it has accumulated $31 million in total earnings.

In the final group of top earners, we find “Paddington in Peru” with a take of $3.9 million (a 15% decrease from the previous week), bringing its domestic earnings up to $37 million. On the other hand, “Dog Man” showed an impressive 18% drop this weekend and earned another $3.5 million, raising its domestic total to $88.7 million.

Or simply:

The animated adventure “Paddington in Peru” took $3.9 million this week (a 15% decrease), adding to its current domestic total of $37 million. Meanwhile, “Dog Man” saw an 18% decrease and grossed another $3.5 million, reaching a domestic total of $88.7 million.

After bagging its Best Picture win, Anora returned to 1,938 cinemas this weekend, earning a total of $1.86 million with an average of $960 per theatre. This is the second-highest single-weekend gross for the movie, surpassed only by its earnings of $2.52 million back in November 2024. Remarkably, this weekend’s take represents a massive 595% increase over last weekend’s $267,526. How does Anora’s post-Best Picture winning weekend earnings stack up against other recent Oscar winners? It falls short of Parasite’s $5.68 million from February 2020, Green Book’s $4.57 million from March 2019, and is 24% lower than The Shape of Water’s $2.34 million.

Despite falling slightly short of Spotlight’s $1.76 million gross from March 2016, Anora managed to come close, with a mere 4% difference compared to Birdman’s $1.92 million haul from February 2015. It significantly surpassed Everything Everywhere All at Once’s $1.29 million haul from March 2023. Currently, Anora has amassed a domestic total of $18.4 million after 143 days in theaters. This places it as one of only two 2024 limited releases to clear $20+ million domestically and the fifth Neon movie ever to achieve this milestone. Given its $6 million budget, this independent film’s performance has been quite impressive. Mufasa: The Lion King remains in the top eight highest-grossing movies in America after 12 weekends, earning another $1.7 million (a 19% decrease from the previous frame). Its total gross now stands at $250.3 million.

The movie titled “Rule Breakers” failed to make an impact at the box office this weekend, earning just $1.59 million despite being screened in over 2,000 theaters. This poor performance is yet another example of Angel Studios underestimating their target audience for their most successful films. Marketed as a celebration of women and feminine empowerment to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8, “Rule Breakers” aimed to appeal to audiences who might dismiss its themes (and the focus on diverse characters) as “politically incorrect,” “DEI,” or whatever offensive label is trending this week. It would be like Disney trying to market a gritty adult film like “Sin City” as a family-friendly sequel to “Moana“. Angel Studios has found success with films that promote white savior narratives and racially problematic dialogue, but “Rule Breakers“, which didn’t heavily emphasize these elements, was doomed to fail.

The horror film “Night of the Zoopocalypse” earned a quiet $1.06 million across approximately 1,400 cinemas this weekend, edging out another new wide release contender, “In the Lost Lands,” which debuted in 1,370 theaters but managed only $1.04 million – a disappointing start that falls significantly short of past performances by Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich films. Vertical Entertainment, I implore you to enhance your promotional strategies for wide releases. The recent underwhelming openings of “Elevation,” “The Order,” and “Your Monster” serve as evidence that your current approach needs refinement. Aiming for a multitude of movies in theaters is crucial, but releasing titles in 1,370 theaters becomes meaningless if audiences remain unaware of films like “In the Lost Lands.

Title performances at the box office show a striking contrast: “Queen on the Ring” managed an opening of only $380,000 across 825 theaters, averaging $460 per theater. On the other hand, “The Rule of Jenny Pen” struggled domestically, earning $263,000 from 878 theaters, resulting in a $299 average per theater.

However, “No Other Land,” fresh off its Best Documentary Feature Oscar win, made an impressive debut, grossing $248,247 in 165 theaters for a $1,504 average per theater and amassing a total of $1.055 million domestically. This is remarkable given that it lacks a domestic distributor. For a post-March 2020 documentary film, this achievement is exceptionally rare. In 2023, only one non-Fathom Events documentary managed to surpass $1 million domestically. Soon, “No Other Land” will overtake “Fire of Love” and a 2022 Leonard Cohen documentary, becoming the fourth-largest non-right-wing documentary released since January 1, 2022.

The domestic box office success of “No Other Land” is nothing short of astounding, which only highlights the unfortunate fact that it failed to secure domestic distribution.

Last weekend, after winning Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, Janus Films expanded the theatrical run of the film Flow slightly. This small engine that could earned an additional $102,100 (a 98% increase from last week) across 139 cinemas, giving it an average of $735 per cinema. To date, Flow has made $4.48 million domestically, making it a massive success for Janus Films and their biggest movie to date in the U.S.

This weekend saw the return of “One of Them Days” to 1,411 theaters, earning a total of $725,000 and bringing its domestic gross to approximately $48.54 million. Sony/TriStar Pictures aim to push this film past the $50 million mark domestically. On the other hand, “Becoming Led Zeppelin” experienced a significant 63% drop in its fifth weekend, taking in $305,000. Despite this, it’s expected to barely surpass $10 million domestically, an impressive feat for a documentary.

New entries on the scene included “Epheus”, which grossed $21,080 from two cinemas, averaging $10,540 per theater. Meanwhile, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” opened to $13,361 from four locations, equating to a modest $3,340 per theater average. Lastly, “The Visitor” debuted at two theaters, earning $11,432 for an initial per-theater average of $5,716.

This past weekend, the highest-grossing ten films earned just $48 million, which is quite low for the first weekend in March. In comparison, back in 2015, the movie “CHAPPiE” held the top spot during the first weekend of March and took in $13.34 million. At that time, the combined total of the top ten films was $72.25 million. This represents a 50% increase compared to this year’s top ten earnings, even before considering inflation in ticket prices over the past decade. Interestingly, the new release “Mickey 17” debuted with no significant competition since it opened without any other major new wide releases. Remarkably, “CHAPPiE” had to contend with “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” a film from Fox Searchlight, which now only releases movies outside of award season on rare occasions (with exceptions like “Kinds of Kindness”).

2025’s domestic box office performance in its initial ten weekends can be described as underwhelming at best, offering little to no excitement compared to the strong finish of 2024. The absence of fresh releases and a disappointing lineup of films (such as Wolf Man and Love Hurts) have turned the opening weeks into a letdown, especially given the successes of Wicked, Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 that carried over from late 2024. The momentum generated by those final six weekends of 2024 seems to have been wasted with the lackluster start of 2025.

Is there a ray of hope on the horizon for the struggling movie industry? The upcoming releases of “Snow White” and “A Minecraft Movie” could potentially bring in more than $35 million each, but it’s not sufficient to revive the market. We desperately need a diverse lineup of films, which major studios have been reluctant to provide as I’ve repeatedly mentioned over the past few months. If Amazon had screened “Another Simple Favor” in cinemas this weekend, they could have earned significantly more money. Imagine if Columbia Pictures or Paramount had acquired and released indie films like “Eden” throughout the last ten weeks? There are strategies that could help alleviate the scarcity of movies hurting the industry and movie theaters. Unfortunately, studios seem unwilling to employ any of these tactics.

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2025-03-11 01:53