“Birds of Prey” Kicks Its Way to the Top Spot

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report Comments Off on “Birds of Prey” Kicks Its Way to the Top Spot

BOX OFFICE REPORT

February 7-9, 2020

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Birds of Prey $33.5 million
Bad Boys for Life  $12 million
1917 $9 million
Dolittle  $6.6 million
Jumanji: The Next Level  $5.5 million

Though it debuted much smaller than anticipated, Birds of Prey still kicked the asses of all the other movies at the box office this weekend. That estimated $33.5 million is the lowest of any of the recent crop of DC movies, but like Shazam! it had a much lower budget and stakes than massive entries like Justice League. But it will face a lot of competition in the weeks to come.

Bad Boys for Life finally slipped to second place. But with $166 million earned so far, it's the highest-grossing film in the franchise, one of the biggest movies for Will Smith (especially for the last decade), and closing in on Michael Bay's biggest non-Transformers movies. Pretty impressive for a January release.

1917 finished strong on what should be a big weekend for it at the Oscars. The Sam Mendes-directed war film fell just under six percent to pass $125 million. And Dolittle earned an ominous $6.66 million and is nearing $65 million. Internationally it's pulled in nearly $100 million. Jumanji: The Next Level held fast at No. 5 and is still just a hair under $300 million.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: The Lodge, a new horror film from Neon. It averaged $13,017 on its six screens.
  • The Rhythm Section fell even further off beat. It dropped 63 percent down to 16th place. It hasn't even crossed $5 million.
  • The Best Picture nominee that got the biggest boost was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Despite losing 36 screens, it earned nearly 90 percent more than it did last weekend. It's now earned around $142 million, Tarantino's second-biggest film.

Next week: It's a little crowded on Valentine's Day weekend. The Photograph and Downhill will try to take the date movie crown, with Fantasy Island hoping to be the go-to counter-programming. But it won't matter, because Sonic the Hedgehog will be No. 1 with around $30 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.