In a weekend with no new wide releases, Spider-Man: No Way Home easily won for perhaps the final time.
January is usually not a great month moviewise, as most of the new releases are generally poor in quality that will hopefully open well, before a quick fadeout. Even by that standard, though, January 2022 has been unusually awful, with just four new wide releases, only one of which made any sort of box office impact. Luckily for theaters still stuck showing Christmas flops to increasingly tiny audiences because of the lack of new product to replace them, help is coming in February.
But first, they had to get through the last weekend of January, the rare weekend with no new wide releases whatsoever. Predictably, that allowed Spider-Man: No Way Home, to top again, for the sixth time in its seven-week run. The superhero saga brought in another $11 million for a gross of $735.9 million, a total that puts it only about $25 million behind Avatar for #3 all-time. Even with increased competition in February, it should be able to come up with that total.
The one film to keep Spider-Man from a clean sweep at the top since December, Scream, came in second, pulling in $7.2 million. That brings the horror sequel's total to $62 million, and it should top out above $70 million, maybe even as high as $75 million. While Scream 6 hasn't been officially announced yet, it seems like a good bet to slash its way to theaters, perhaps as early as next January.
Sing 2, the one non-Spider-Man title from December that's also an unqualified hit, came in third, grossing $4.7 million to bring its total to $134.4 million. Except Sing 3 in a few years time.
Despite no new competition this week, Christian drama Redeeming Love fell by roughly half from its opening last weekend. The western love story brought in $1.8 million, for a ten-day total of $6.6 million. It will likely finish around $10 million or so.
The King's Men, which has surprisingly turned out to be fairly leggy, came in fifth with $1.7 million. The action comedy is now up to $34 million, and has West Side Story in its crosshairs.
Flop actioner The 355 and disappointing biopic American Underdog round out the titles that finished above $1 million for the weekend, grossing $1.3 million and $1.2 million, respectively. The two films are now at $13 million for 355 and $24.7 million for Underdog.
Rounding out the Top Ten are Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Licorice Pizza, and West Side Story. Their totals are $128.1 million, $11.8 million, and $36 million.
Even with the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, February looks to be a very promising month in terms of new releases, with a number of titles that look like they could be breakout hits. This weekend sees the arrival of Jackass Forever, the fourth installment of the film series (spun off from the long-ago MTV series) in which Johnny Knoxville and friends hurt and/or humiliate themselves and each other for the lulz. This is the first entry in over a decade, since 2010's Jackass 3D, which opened north of $50 million (though there was the hit 2013 spinoff Bad Grandpa and Action Point, Knoxville's flop 2018 attempt to combine Jackass-style stunts with a scripted narrative). Don't expect this one to make anywhere near that amount, but it should have a decent start. Also aiming for #1 is the sci-fi thriller Moonfall (which sounds awfully like the name of a Jackass stunt), in which rogue scientists Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson try to prevent the moon from hurtling into the Earth. This is directed by Roland Emmerich, who has previous experience destroying the planet with Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012. Don't expect this to make anywhere near any of those films, but it might be able to pull up some solid business itself. Will Jackass knock its way to #1? Will Moonfall rise to the occasion? Or will Spider-Man beat the odds and spend another week on top? We'll find out next week.
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