At long last Disney/20th Century Studio’s Agatha Christie adaption, ‘Death on the Nile‘ hit theaters to lukewarm reviews and a quiet $12.8 million.
For comparison, 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express opened to $28.7 just a week before the Thanksgiving holiday. With a production budget of approximately $55 million, Orient Express was able to cross the century mark at the box office. Costing around $90 million, Death on the Nile has a much larger scope than its predecessor. However it is unlikely that the second installment will be able to cross this same milestone.
Another obstacle the film is unlikely to overcome is the target audience for this murder mystery. Throughout the pandemic, younger audiences as well as families have been the most likely to head out to the theaters. However, older audiences have been a bit slower to return and with Omicron continuing to keep this group away, Death on the Nile just couldn’t measure up to the first. The bright side to all this is that the movie is sure to perform well on both PVOD as well as streaming.
At the end of its second weekend, Paramount’s ‘Jackass Forever‘ bringing in just over $8 million. After dropping over 65% the film, the fourth installment in the franchise has a domestic total of $37.4 million and a worldwide total of $42.3 million. It’ll likely end its theatrical run as the lowest performing entry but has also received the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of the franchise. All in all, Paramount has had a great start to the year after ‘Scream 5‘ and now ‘Jackass Forever‘.
Taking the third spot was Universal’s ‘Marry Me‘ which debuted day-and-date in theaters and on Peacock. The Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson starring rom com opened to a solid $8. The movie, which came out just in time for Valentine’s Day, was able to compete quite well considering most movies in the genre, release at home on a streaming service. This weekend proved to be no exception. Prime Video released I Want You Back, Apple released ‘The Sky is Everywhere‘ and Paramount+ released their movie The In Between.
Continuing its impressive theatrical run, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home‘ nabbed another $7.1 million. Bringing its domestic total to a staggering $759 million. The third film in the ‘Home’ trilogy will overtake James Cameron’s Avatar in the coming days to settle into the third spot in the all time domestic box office list. Currently he worldwide total for the blockbuster stands at $1.8 billion.
Rounding out the top 5 is the Liam Neeson staring action flick, ‘Blacklight‘. Ending its opening weekend the movie brought in just $3.6 million despite having a wide release. Poor reviews and a lack of interest in this repetitive style of action movie that Neeson has been the face of for the past decade capped off the top 5 in a disappointing fashion.
