Well, it seems we can now officially say it: January 2022 was a dismal month for the big screen experience. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's Scream had a great debut a couple weeks ago, but mostly the market has been indicative of the industry's intense fear of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, with most studios opting to delay their high profile titles. Because of this, the first month of the year is closing out with Jon Watts' Spider-Man: No Way Home once again positioned as the number one movie in America with exactly zero new films in Top 10.
Check out the box office results below, and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Spider-Man: No Way Home | $11,000,000 | $735,886,280 | 1 | 3,675 |
| 2. Scream | $7,350,000 | $62,138,780 | 2 | 3,518 |
| 3. Sing 2 | $4,800,000 | $134,508,860 | 3 | 3,450 |
| 4. Redeeming Love | $1,850,000 | $6,531,765 | 4 | 1,963 |
| 5. The King’s Man | $1,754,000 | $34,044,436 | 5 | 2,440 |
| 6. The 355 | $1,400,000 | $13,089,625 | 6 | 2,513 |
| 7. American Underdog | $1,225,000 | $24,782,428 | 7 | 2,113 |
| 8. Ghostbusters: Afterlife | $770,000 | $128,058,897 | 11 | 1,170 |
| 9. Licorice Pizza | $691,187 | $11,816,739 | 10 | 772 |
| 10. West Side Story | $614,000 | $36,035,009 | 9 | 1,335 |
Spider-Man: No Way Home Is #1 At The Box Office For The Sixth Time In Seven Weeks
Spider-Man: No Way Home utterly decimated COVID-19 box office records when it hit theaters on December 17, 2021, pulling in a staggering $260.1 million in its first three days, and the percentage drops in the weeks since have been shockingly minimal. There's a great number of recent films that would have loved to make $11 million in their second or third weeks of release, and the Marvel blockbuster just made that much in its seventh Friday-to-Sunday. (You may remember that Steven Spielberg's West Side Story only made $10.5 million during its opening weekend in early December).
Globally, Spider-Man: No Way Home has thus far earned $1.7 billion, though that number sees it continue to hold its same position as last week on the all-time box office chart. Regular readers will remember that the blockbuster surpassed Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World last weekend, taking over sixth place in the record books, though it still has a considerable distance to travel if it wants to enter the Top 5 and out-earn Joe and Anthony Russo's Avengers: Infinity War – which made over $2 billion before it was done with its theatrical run in 2018.
In case its not obvious, this means that Spider-Man: No Way Home has not yet made a climb in the Marvel Cinematic Universe box office rankings either. The film has now made over $200 million more than Joss Whedon's The Avengers, and is the third highest grossing release in the franchise, but Avengers: Infinity War and Joe and Anthony Russo's Avengers: Endgame still appear to be untouchable in their respective rankings.
As exciting as it is to see a movie do so well on the big screen after everything that has happened since March 2020, at this point its actually kind of a bummer that Spider-Man: No Way Home is still the number one film domestically. January has never exactly had a reputation as being an exemplary month for new cinema (quite the contrary, actually), but exciting new theatrical releases are the life blood of the industry, and right now the lack of flow is disturbing.
Fortunately, things are looking up for February, as there are a number of titles that should hopefully get the attention of movie-goers are draw them out of the house. Ruben Fleischer's Uncharted, starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and more, is expected to be the biggest new release, but there is a good number of other films with solid potential as well, including Jeff Tremaine's Jackass Forever, which arrives this Friday.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife Is Resurrected In The Top 10
With exactly zero new wide releases playing on the big screen this weekend, the structure of the Top 10 at the domestic box office didn't change much at all when you compare it to last Sunday – but the bottom three slots are the exception. Having only made $435,000 in its second weekend, Sean McNamara's The King’s Daughter fell off the chart, and the film that has surprisingly taken its place is Jason Reitman's Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Movie fans will remember that Ghostbusters: Afterlife first arrived on the big screen all the way back in early November, but Sony Pictures gave it a bit of a boost over the weekend and had it playing in 109 more locations compared to the weekend past. It only managed to make $770,000, but that's an 18 percent weekend-to-weekend bump, and it's surprising to see it back in the Top 10 after dropping off last Sunday.
To date, Ghostbusters: Afterlife has made $196 million globally, and domestically it was the 10th biggest performer of all big screen releases in 2021. That being said, it is the first in the Ghostbusters franchise to have not made more than $200 million worldwide, and it doesn't appear likely that it will pass that milestone before it's done with its theatrical run.
Scream Is Drawing Closer To Scream 4's Worldwide Box Office Total
As far as internal franchise comparisons go, Scream is on a much better path. The slasher film lost to Spider-Man: No Way Home for the second weekend in a row, but the additional $7.4 million has further enhanced its standing compared to its predecessors. Domestically, the sequel has already made a lot more than Wes Craven's Scream 4, which made $38.2 million in the United States and Canada.
The new Scream still sits behind Scream 4 when you look at the worldwide numbers, but it is gaining ground. The 2011 movie made $96 million globally, and the "requel" is now less than $13 million behind it (having thus far made $83.1 million). The film isn't going to come anywhere near the $173 million earned by Wes Craven's original Scream back in 1996, but it wasn't really expected to, and its success thus far would justify the series' continuation from a financial standpoint (according to The Numbers, the budget was only $24 million).
January ended with a whimper, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that February 2022 will turn things around, starting with the aforementioned Jackass Forever and Roland Emmerich's Moonfall. Jeff Tremaine's Jackass 3D brought it $50 million when it premiered in 2010, and Emmerich has a solid history of successful disaster blockbusters, so hopefully we'll see history repeat itself a bit.
Be sure to come back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how the box office shakes out, and check out our 2022 Movie Release Calendar to discover every big screen release currently scheduled to come out between now and the end of December.
