Box Office Discussion: Your "Honor"

 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has the best opening for a non-franchise film since last summer.

It's no secret that Hollywood loves franchises, and the reason they love franchises is because the audiences loves franchises.  Depending on how you classify The Batman, you have to go to #12 and Elvis on the list of top movies of 2022 before finding a film that's not a sequel, prequel, or franchise cog.  2023 isn't any better, as Knock on the Cabin was the only original film to top the weekend box office this year.

One can certainly quibble that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is indeed a franchise cog.  After all, it is based on the most famous and popular RPG game of all time, one that has formed the basis of a Saturday morning cartoon series in the 80s, countless media parodies, and even a prior movie.  Of course, that 2000 effort came and went in weeks, and this one is from an entirely new production crew, so I think it's fair to label this a franchise starter, which the producers would very much like this to be.

And it has a great chance of doing so.  Thieves earned near-across-the-board raves from critics, and audiences turned out to the tune of $37.2 million, the best opening for a film not part of an existing franchise since Nope last July.  This one looks almost certain to finish above $100 million, and depending on its legs, it could finish quite a bit higher than that.  It does have some competition--next week's Renfield looks like its going for the same audience, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 lurks at the beginning of May, and this very weekend has another game-to-movie adaption you might have heard about, but if Dungeons can hold its own, it could do quite well.

After slaughtering the competition last weekend, John Wick: Chapter 4 slows down some, taking in $28.4 million, for a ten-day total of $123 million.  It's still running ahead of Chapter 3, but that film held up a bit better in its second week.  We'll see if franchise fatigue and the extended running time of nearly 3 hours hurts Wick's roll in the coming weeks.

Slipping somewhat unheralded into theaters, the Biblical drama His Only Son, which tells the story of God's demand that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac to Him, took advantage of both Christian and Jewish audiences looking for faith-based entertainment the weekend before both Easter and Passover.  It opened to a much better than expected $5.5 million.  That's better than last Easter's Christian film, the all-star (and R-rated) Father Stu (which, to be fair, had opened on Wednesday).  Indeed, other than Jesus Revolution, this is the best opening for a religious movie since I Still Believe's ill-timed arrival three years ago.  We'll see if this weekend's holidays keep this from a normal second-weekend slide.

Scream VI slashed its way to the precipice of $100 million, taking in $5.3 million for a total of $98.3 million.  Creed III punched its way tot he precipice of $150 million, taking in $5 million for a total of $148.6 million.  Both titles should be across those markers by the end of next weekend.

Continuing its quick fade, Shazam! Fury of the Gods brought in $4.6 million to bring its total to $53.5 million, finally equaling the first film's opening weekend.  This one will likely barely make it over $60 million, making it one of the biggest front-loaded flops of the year so far.

Getting a surprisingly wide release, indie drama A Thousand and One, starring actress-singer Teyana Taylor as a mother who kidnaps her neglected son from the foster system, took advantage of strong word-of-mouth out of Sundance to open to $1.8 million.  Assuming the film isn't forgotten by then, Taylor could be a dark horse contender for acting honors at the end of the year.

Sci-fi disappointment 65 heads for the exit after taking in $1.6 million for a total of $30.6 million.  While its hard to call it a disappointment, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania definitely underperformed after opening to triple digits.  It took in $1.2 million for a total of $212 million.

Edging out Jesus Revolution for the tenth spot was the Fathom special event The Journey: A Music Special from Andrea Bocelli.  The part-concert film, part-documentary that follows the famed Italian singer as he visits (and sings at) historic sites across his homeland took in $1.2 million from its limited release. 

With Easter weekend coming up, this week's two major new offerings have both already opened.  For the second weekend in a row, there's a movie version of a beloved game franchise, which has already had extensive prior spin-off media, including a previous failed movie adaption.  However, early predictions are that, as impressive as Dungeons & Dragons opening was, the opening for The Super Mario Bros. Movie could leave it looking like a squished Goomba.  The first major family film since Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (which was still in over 800 theaters last weekend), this one could see an opening in the $125 million range, which is a whole lot of gold coins.  For the adults, there's Air, a historical drama about Nike's quest to convince a budding basketball superstar named Michael Jordan to sign an exclusive apparel agreement with them.  Director Ben Affleck recruited an all-star cast, including Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker (in his first movie since 2016's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk), his old friend Matt Damon, and himself as Nike head honcho Phil Knight.  This one is being released by Amazon, which has been stingy about releasing box office numbers since the pandemic, but this is easily their widest release in a while, and Amazon hasn't announced its arrival date on Prime, so there's a pretty good chance we'll actually get some data on this one, especially if the cast, coupled with the sterling reviews, help it to a solid opening.  Will Super Mario Bros. level up to the biggest opening of the year, or will it be Game Over a lot faster than people realize?  We'll find out next week.