Weekend projections: Den of Thieves holds strong through the weekend to top the chart

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera will win the weekend at the box office thanks to a solid day-to-day performance, while Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 decline from their Holiday-fueled runs to land in second and third place. There’s also plenty of action on the specialty front, with The Last Showgirl and Game Changer debuting in the top ten.

Here’s how the weekend numbers look as of Sunday morning (click on the image for the full chart of films reporting so far)…

The opening for Den of Thieves: Pantera is almost identical to the $15.2 million earned by the original Den of Thieves back in 2018, which makes this a very good start for the action movie. Of particular note, it has outperformed our model’s Friday-morning prediction, which was based heavily on its Thursday previews result. The film’s B+ CinemaScore indicates that it’s getting good word-of-mouth, which is translating into a strong run so far. Action movies rarely have especially long runs in theaters, but Pantera will be helped by the MLK weekend next weekend, and looks to be emulating The Beekeeper so far. That film opened with $16.6 million on MLK weekend last year and finished with $66 million in total. Den of Thieves looks like a good bet for topping $50 million (although the model currently predicts $44 million), and should do good business internationally.

The Indian, Telugu-language, film Game Changer is posting a very respectable $2 million from its opening weekend to land in ninth place. The Last Showgirl is a little behind it, with an expected $1.5 million or so (we haven’t received an official projection from Roadside Attractions yet). While that’s behind our model’s prediction, it’s a good opening for an indie drama, and sets the film up for a decent run in awards season.

Among other notable awards hopefuls, Babygirl is enjoying a good hold this weekend, with $3.1 million taking it to $21.7 million in total. The Brutalist is doing stellar business, with a projected $1.4 million from just 68 theaters as it begins its expansion. A Complete Unknown remains the top-earning indie-drama-awards-hopeful, with $5 million this weekend taking it over $50 million in total.

The biggest disappointment this weekend is Better Man, a biopic about British pop star Robbie Williams. Its excellent reviews and creativity haven’t won over North American audiences, and it’ll have to settle for a little over $1 million this weekend.

– Studio weekend projections

– All-time top-grossing movies in North America

– All-time top-grossing movies worldwide

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Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com