January is the time of year when bad movies can have a legitimate shot at box office glory. Between holdover blockbusters from December lingering around and prestige titles in award season races expanding theater counts, it's not a particularly robust time of year for the industry, so there is a chance for less buzzy titles to sell some tickets. The latest movie to take advantage of this annual tradition is Flight Risk starring Mark Wahlberg, which failed to earn much critical acclaim going into the weekend but now sits at the top of the domestic chart.
The new release's biggest competition in the last three days was Barry Jenkins' Mufasa: The Lion King, now in its sixth weekend of release, and it ended up being the only title to earn eight figures since Friday. Check out the Top 10 domestic releases below and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Flight Risk* | $12,000,000 | $12,000,000 | N/A | 3,161 |
| 2. Mufasa: The Lion King | $8,700,000 | $221,073,045 | 1 | 3,420 |
| 3. One Of Them Days | $8,000,000 | $25,091,000 | 2 | 2,675 |
| 4. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 | $5,500,000 | $226,096,000 | 4 | 3,097 |
| 5. Moana 2 | $4,300,000 | $450,040,500 | 6 | 2,550 |
| 6. Presence* | $3,415,000 | $3,415,000 | N/A | 1,750 |
| 7. Wolf Man | $3,400,000 | $17,810,000 | 3 | 3,354 |
| 8. A Complete Unknown | $3,100,000 | $62,946,833 | 8 | 2,010 |
| 9. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera | $3,000,000 | $31,850,577 | 5 | 2,108 |
| 10. The Brutalist | $2,873,057 | $9,333,947 | 10 | 1,118 |
Flight Risk Gets A Critical Drubbing But Still Earned Some Curiosity From Movie-Goers
Flight Risk is not getting a lot of love. As the curtains went up on its opening weekend, the new 2025 movie sported a 21 percent rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and the "C" grade returned from CinemaScore surveys suggests that audiences aren't having much fun with it either – even with all of the jokes flying around about Mark Wahlberg's hair in the film. Thanks to a modest level of curiosity and a lack of significant competition, however, the movie was able to debut in the number one spot on the domestic Top 10 (per The Numbers).
Starring the aforementioned Wahlberg in addition to Topher Grace and Michelle Dockery, the new movie made $12 million over the last three days according to early reporting, which is slightly more than what Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man and Lawrence Lamont's One Of Them Days earned when they arrived in theaters the week prior (more on them in a bit). The film doesn't get to temporarily claim to be the biggest debut of 2025 so far, however, as Christian Gudegast's Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera made $15 million earlier this month and still sits on top of the record books for the young year.
It's clearly not a fast start for the new release, but it actually is the best debut for a Mark Wahlberg movie since the arrival of Ruben Fleischer's Uncharted in 2022. Rosalind Ross' Father Stu, which came out about two months after the video game blockbuster, opened in fifth place and made only $5.4 million. Last year, Simon Cellan Jones' Arthur The King did better, but it only made $7.6 million in its first three days and took the bronze medal in its first Friday-to-Sunday.
Looking at these results, it's pretty easy to predict that Flight Risk won't be sticking around in the Top 10 for very long. The reaction we've seen suggests that word of mouth isn't going to be putting more butts in seats for its second weekend – and next weekend will see the arrival of Drew Hancock's hyped original horror movie Companion along with the family friendly adventure Peter Hastings' Dog Man (based on the book by Dav Pilkey). Despite the thriller winning a box office crown this week, it may struggle to stay in the Top 5 seven days from now.
One Of Them Days Manages To Hold Strong While Wolf Man Sinks To Seventh Place
Staying on the subject of second weekend holds, the past three days have seen wildly different results for the two big wide releases from last week – and there is definitely a suggestion that buzz had a significant role in the way things played out.
While final tabulations from last Sunday ultimately saw One Of Them Days pushed down to second place behind Mufasa: The Lion King, the comedy made $11.8 million in its first three days, and it followed up that success with an impressive 32 percent weekend-to-weekend drop. It's not exactly doing what could be described as blockbuster business, as it still landed in third place with a modest $8 million take, but it seems to be finding an audience. As you would expect given the genre, the movie was not expensive to make, with Variety reporting a pre-marketing and advertising budget of $14 million, and it has made $25.1 million to date domestically. At a time when big screen comedies appear to not be a major draw, it will go down in the books as a win.
What won't be viewed as a win by any standard measure is what's going on with Wolf Man. The Universal Monster title was in stiff competition for the top spot at the box office last weekend (it settled for third place and a $10.9 million take), but the film took a big plunge weekend-to-weekend – specifically a 69 percent fall. The film added just $3.4 million to its coffers domestically over the last three days, bringing its domestic total to date up to $17.8 million. The new horror movie was produced by Blumhouse, which has a strong reputation for keeping budgets low, but it still cost $25 million to make, so things are definitely not going well. Abroad, it has only made $9.9 million, adding to a worldwide total that presently stands at $27.7 million.
How things will shake out for the two next weekend will be a curiosity to keep an eye on. There aren't any movies on the way that will specifically draw away the main demographic of One Of Them Days, but the same cannot be said for Wolf Man. Will the former be able to hold on strong while the latter does an even deeper dip down the top 10?
We'll find out next Sunday how the arrival of Dog Man and Companion shake things up at the weekend box office, and I'll be back here on CinemaBlend to both report and analyze the outcomes. To prepare yourself for the new releases, you can read my four-star, spoiler free review of Companion and be on the lookout for my critique of Dog Man on Wednesday morning.
