Against All Odds: Flight Risk Soars to Box Office Victory Despite Dismal Reviews!

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In January, less popular films might have a real opportunity to shine in box office success. This is because hit movies from December continue to be shown and award-contending films increase their theater counts, making it a relatively lean period for the industry. Therefore, there’s room for lesser-known titles to attract audiences. The newest film capitalizing on this annual trend is Flight Risk, starring Mark Wahlberg, which received little critical praise initially but has now seized the number one spot in the domestic box office chart.

In the past three days, the biggest challenge for the latest release came from Barry Jenkins’ “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which is now in its sixth week of release. Interestingly, it was the only film to gross over $10 million since Friday. Here are the Top 10 domestic releases, and let’s delve into the analysis together afterward.

Flight Risk Gets A Critical Drubbing But Still Earned Some Curiosity From Movie-Goers

It seems that the latest 2025 movie release, “Flight Risk,” isn’t getting much positive feedback. On its opening weekend, it received a 21% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and the ‘C’ grade from CinemaScore surveys indicates that viewers aren’t finding it particularly enjoyable. Despite the numerous jokes circulating about Mark Wahlberg’s hair in the film, it appears that audiences are not warming up to it. However, due to a minimal level of interest and limited competition, the movie managed to secure the top spot on the domestic Top 10 chart (according to The Numbers).

Featuring Mark Wahlberg alongside Topher Grace and Michelle Dockery, the latest film raked in approximately $12 million over its first three days, according to preliminary figures. This figure slightly surpasses what Leigh Whannell’s “Wolf Man” and Lawrence Lamont’s “One Of Them Days” earned during their theater debuts a week prior (details on them coming up). However, it doesn’t currently hold the title for the largest opening of 2025 thus far, as Christian Gudegast’s “Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera” made $15 million earlier this month and continues to lead the charts for the young year.

The new release hasn’t had a strong initial performance, however, it marks the strongest opening for a Mark Wahlberg film since the 2022 debut of Ruben Fleischer’s Uncharted. Released approximately two months later, Rosalind Ross’ Father Stu opened in fifth place and grossed $5.4 million. In comparison, Simon Cellan Jones’ Arthur The King from last year performed slightly better, earning $7.6 million in its first three days and taking the third spot during its initial Friday-to-Sunday run.

Based on these outcomes, it seems quite clear that “Flight Risk” is unlikely to maintain its position in the Top 10 for much longer. The response thus far indicates that it won’t be generating significant word-of-mouth buzz to boost ticket sales for its second week. However, next weekend will witness the debut of Drew Hancock’s highly anticipated original horror film “Companion” as well as Peter Hastings’ family-friendly adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s book, “Dog Man”. While “Flight Risk” currently holds the box office title, it might find it challenging to remain in the Top 5 a week from now.

One Of Them Days Manages To Hold Strong While Wolf Man Sinks To Seventh Place

Regarding the topic of box office performances over the weekend, it’s worth noting that the past three days have shown dramatically varying outcomes for the two major films released last week. It seems clear that audience enthusiasm or buzz may have greatly influenced these results.

Initial tallies from last Sunday resulted in “_One Of Them Days_” moving to second place behind “_Mufasa: The Lion King_,” but it started strong with $11.8 million in its initial three days. Notably, it experienced an impressive 32% decrease in earnings from one weekend to the next. Although it didn’t achieve blockbuster numbers, finishing third with a $8 million take, it appears to be resonating with audiences. As one might anticipate for a comedy, production costs were relatively low, with Variety reporting a pre-marketing and advertising budget of $14 million. To date, it has grossed $25.1 million domestically. Given the current trend of comedies not being major attractions, this is considered a success.

The current performance of “Wolf Man” is not considered successful by any standard, as it struggled to secure a top spot at the box office last weekend and experienced a significant drop in earnings over the following days. Despite Blumhouse’s reputation for managing low budgets, the production cost of $25 million seems to have been a burden, as it only managed to gross an additional $3.4 million domestically during the past three days, bringing its total domestic earnings to $17.8 million. Overseas, it has made only $9.9 million, resulting in a global total of $27.7 million so far, indicating that things are not going well for this new horror movie.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the next weekend unfolds, especially with regard to the box office performance of “One Of Them Days” and “Wolf Man”. While “One Of Them Days” doesn’t appear to have any significant competition from upcoming movies that would attract its primary audience, the situation seems different for “Wolf Man”, which may see a steeper drop in the top 10 rankings. Will “One Of Them Days” maintain its position, or will “Wolf Man” cause it to slip further?

On the upcoming Sunday, we’ll discover the impact that the premieres of “Dog Man” and “Companion” will have on the weekend box office. I’ll return here on TopMob to share the results, along with my analysis. To get ready for these new releases, feel free to read my four-star, spoiler-free review of “Companion,” and keep an eye out for my critique of “Dog Man” scheduled for Wednesday morning.

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2025-01-26 21:07