“Death on the Nile” collected $12.8 million in its opening weekend. Those ticket sales wouldn’t buy enough Champagne to fill the Nile, but they are sufficient to lead domestic box office charts.
The star-studded murder mystery, from Disney and 20th Century Studios, arrived on par with expectations, which had projected a debut in between $11 million to $14 million. But “Death on the Nile” cost $90 million to produce — not to mention the additional costs the film racked up across several pandemic-related delays — meaning it will not be smooth sailing to get out of the red.
Jennifer Lopez’s romantic comedy “Marry Me,” also new to theaters this weekend, didn’t exactly find its happily ever after. The movie brought in $8 million from 3,462 venues, enough for third place. That start isn’t catastrophic considering “Marry Me” cost only $23 million to make and landed on NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock on the same day as its theatrical release. However, it’s less than box office experts had predicted heading into the weekend and it likely won’t inspire Universal Pictures executives to greenlight “Marry Me 2.”
Universal Pictures did not report viewership on Peacock, where “Marry Me” was available on the premium tier, so it’s impossible to know whether the studio mitigated losses by premiering the movie day-and-date online or if the hybrid release cut into box office ticket sales. Peacock has only 9 million paid subscribers (HBO Max launched around the same time and has 73.8 million subscribers), so it may not have kept too many interested viewers at home.
With “Marry Me” falling slightly short of expectations, last weekend’s box office champ “Jackass Forever” took the runner-up spot. Paramount’s fourth entry in the absurdist comedy franchise took in $8,050 from 3,653 screens over the weekend, a significant-but-not-surprising 65% decline from inaugural sales. “Jackass Forever” has earned $37.4 million to date — not bad for a movie that cost only $10 million to make.
“Marry Me” and “Death on the Nile” were scheduled as can’t-miss counterprogramming against this Sunday’s Super Bowl festivities. That wasn’t the case for “Blacklight,” the umpteenth Liam Neeson action-thriller to play in theaters since the pandemic. Briarcliff Entertainment is distributing the film, which pulled in $3.6 million from 2,772 theaters. That’s a dismal result, but one that matches to Neeson’s other COVID capers like “Honest Thief” ($3.6 million debut) and “The Marksman” ($3.1 million debut).
“Blacklight” landed in fifth place behind “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which earned $7.1 million in its ninth weekend of release. Sony’s comic book epic has earned $759.001 million at the North American box office, putting “No Way Home” less than $1 million away from passing James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster “Avatar” ($760 million) to become the third-highest grossing domestic release in history (not adjusted for inflation).
See this weekend’s domestic box office estimates:
- “Death on the Nile” — $12.8 million
- “Jackass Forever” — $8,050 million
- “Marry Me” — $8 million
- “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — $7.1 million
- “Blacklight” — $3.6 million
More to come…