Box Office Report: February 9, 2020

Feb 9

BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN

Despite mostly positive reviews (including this one from NDFS’s Greg Carlson), Warner Bros. ‘s Birds of Prey (#1) failed to take off like other super hero-adjacent films have in the past. Starring Margot Robbie as the edgy villainess Harley Quinn, Birds of Prey picked up an estimated $33.25 million in its opening weekend from 4,236 theaters. WB had expected it to earn at least $45 million.

The can celebrate its pretty stellar critical response (it currently has an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes), as well as a B+ CinemaScore, which means word-of-mouth could help it continue to build momentum in the next few weeks. Though it was the only major release this weekend, it did have some stiff competition.

Universal’s 1917 (#3), the frontrunner for this weekend’s Oscar prize for Best Picture, experienced a terrific weekend for a film that’s been in theaters for a month. Its $9 million was down just 5% from last weekend and it currently rests at $132.5 million, domestically. There’s no doubt its Oscar buzz is helping it continue to gain audiences’ attention.Other Oscar contenders, like Parasite (#14) and Little Women (#9) continued to score well.

Rounding out the top five this weekend are Sony’s Bad Boys for Life (#2), which drops out of first place for the first time since it released, Universals’ Dolittle (#4), and Sony’s Jumanji: The Next Level (#5) (the late-2019 release should cross the $300 million mark in the next week or so).

Next weekend, Birds of Prey’s competition will look a little different as the Valentine’s Day holiday rests on Friday and studios are dumping a lot of differing pieces of entertainment. Universal covers romance with The Photograph, starring Issa Rae, Sony has the horror flick Fantasy Island, Searchlight releases its American remake of the comedy Downhill (which premiered at Sundance in January to mixed reviews), and paramount will finally release Sonic the Hedgehog after taking his design back to the drawing board.

WEEKEND TOP TEN (numbers are estimated; bold signifies a new release):
1. Birds of Prey - $ 33.25 million
2. Bad Boys for Life - $12 million
3. 1917 - $9 million
4. Dolittle - $6.66 million
5. Jumanji: The Next Level - $5.53 million
6. The Gentlemen - $4.18 million
7. Gretel & Hansel - $3.5 million
8. Knives Out - $2.35 million
9. Little Women - $2.32 million
10. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - $2.22 million