Box Office Discussion: The "Girls" Who Kicked the "Bee"hive

 On a very slow weekend, football helps Mean Girls hold off The Beekeeper for a threepeat.

As the year began, there was a lot of fretting about how the twin strikes of 2023 would affect the pipeline.  We may be seeing our first gap, as there hasn't been a major studio release for two weekends now, and the box office has largely cratered as a result.  This was the slowest weekend in nearly a year, since last year's Super Bowl weekend.  Of course, that weekend had only one major football game while this weekend had two, and the results of the Chiefs and 49ers clinching their Super Bowl tickets was an exceedingly narrow win of the female-aimed film over the male-aimed film.

Mean Girls becomes the first film to threepeat three weeks in a row since The Nun II, and like that film, it feels more like, after the first weekend, the film more or less won by default.  The musical remake took in $6.9 million, the lowest gross for a #1 film since Top Gun: Maverick won Labor Day weekend 2022 with a gross of just over $6 million.  Of course, by that point, Maverick had been out for 15 weeks, and that weekend theaters nationwide lowered ticket prices to just $3, two excuses that Mean Girls doesn't have.  Still, Girls is now sitting pretty at a respectable $60.4 million, still ahead of where Girls'04 was after its third weekend.  That said, Girls'04 made $10.2 million in its third weekend, despite competition from two big summer movies (Troy and Van Helsing), so it seems increasingly likely that Girls'24 will finish under Girls'04.

Preliminary estimates on Sunday had The Beekeeper buzzing to the top of the box office, but enough guys stayed home on Sunday to watch football to allow Mean Girls to edge out Beekeeper in the final numbers.  The Jason Statham thriller brought in $6.7 million for a total of $41.6 million.  That said, Beekeeper is on the verge of passing The Transporter 2 to become the biggest "Jason Statham movie" (i.e., the chief attraction is watching Statham kill a whole bunch of people, with no street racers or giant sharks or 80s action stars in sight) of all time.

A trio of leggy Christmas hits stay put at 3-5.  Wonka conjured up $5.7 million for a total of $194.9 million.  It seems likely to pass $200 million by the end of this coming weekend.  Migration became the 25th and likely final $100 million grosser of 2023 by taking in $4.9 million to soar to $101 million.  It still seems likely to pass Hop, so it won't be the lowest-grossing Illumination title.  That said, the studio is probably greatly looking forward to the release of Despicable Me 4 this summer (why the trailer for that just dropped and wasn't ready and attached to Migration, I have no idea).  Anyone But You, possibly the leggiest wide-release of the 21st century, took in $4.6 million, for a total of $71 million.  With Valentine's Day just a couple weeks away, it has a slim chance of becoming 2023 film #6 to top the century mark, though it likely will have to settle for a final gross north of $80 million.

Expanding to 2,300 theaters this weekend, Poor Things, coming off of its 11 Oscar nominations, jumped to #6 with $2.9 million.  The oddball comedy, starring Oscar nominees Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, has taken in $24.7 million.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which is coming off of its 0 Oscar nominations, continues to hang around, earning $2.7 million for a total of $118 million.  It should be pointed out that Aquaman will end up the highest-grossing film released on December 22, well ahead of Migration and Anyone But You.  Of course, the film cost more than twice as much as Migration and Anyone But You combined.

Another 2023 Oscar nominee, Godzilla Minus One, nominated for its Visual Effects, returned to theaters in a special black and white version and jumped back into the Top 10 with $2.7 million, for a total of $55.1 million.  Assuming it gets to stay in theaters, it should pass Life is Beautiful to become the second-highest grossing foreign language title in North America in the next couple of weeks.

Rounding out the Top 10, American Fiction, up for 5 Oscars, also expanded and made the Top 10 for the first time, earning $2.6 million for a total of $11.5 million.  Night Swim, which took in $2.2 million for a gross of $26.7 million, hasn't been drowning quite as fast as expected, so it still has a shot of catching up to the opening weekend of M3GAN.

Outside the Top 10, last week's flop space thriller I.S.S. burned up upon re-entry, falling to $1.3 million for a ten-day total of $5.5 million.  The distributer, Bleeker Street, hasn't had a film hit even $10 million since Logan Lucky in 2017, and that streak will continue.  Origin, which despite a qualifying release in December, failed to garner any Oscar nominations, but still expanded, hitting enough theaters to top $1 million for the weekend, hitting $1.3 million.  Its total stands at $2.4 million.  Other newly crowned Oscar nominees seeing a surge in attendence this weekend include The Zone of Interest (topping $1 million for the first time), Oppenheimer, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Teacher's Lounge.  Finally, there is some dispute with the Indian actioner Fighter, which looks a whole lot like a Top Gun ripoff.  The Numbers has it grossing $3.7 million, good for 6th over the weekend, while Box Office Mojo has it taking in only $1 million, good for 16th.  My guess is that the Numbers numbers are more accurate, but I don't know for certain.

After taking the end of January off, the big studios--or at least Universal--return to action this weekend with Argylle.  The action comedy stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a spy novelist who discovers that, somehow, she's been channeling real secret spy missions for the plots of her books, which puts her life in danger.  Luckily dashing secret agent Sam Rockwell is there to save her.  The all-star cast, which includes Henry Cavell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson, has a rather derivative plot (it sounds a whole lot like the plot of The Lost City two years ago), but director Matthew Vaughn had huge success with the Kingsman series (and the trailer makes it look a whole lot like a PG-13 Kingsman).  Barring something unexpected, it should be an easy #1.  Also likely to attract moviegoers will be the first three episodes of the fourth season of The Chosen, the quiet streaming smash hit about the life of Jesus.  The trilogy of episodes has an outside chance of shocking Argylle for the top spot.  Will Argylle and The Chosen be able to successfully revive the moribund box office?  We'll find out next week.