Bizarrely, the end of February has mirrored the end of January. Movie fans will remember that last month went out with a whimper instead of a bang, as none of the major studios put out a new wide release and let Jon Watts' Spider-Man: No Way Home win the box office for the sixth time since its debut.
Now the second month of 2022 is coming to a close, and another Tom Holland vehicle – namely Ruben Fleischer's Uncharted – has repeated in the number one spot on the weekend chart because it had no significant competition. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Uncharted | $23,250,000 | $83,385,478 | 1 | 4,275 |
| 2. Dog | $10,127,944 | $30,899,028 | 2 | 3,827 |
| 3. Spider-Man: No Way Home | $5,750,000 | $779,886,947 | 3 | 3,002 |
| 4. Death On The Nile | $4,500,000 | $32,754,766 | 4 | 3,420 |
| 5. Jackass Forever | $3,175,000 | $52,069,725 | 5 | 2,913 |
| 6. Sing 2 | $2,110,000 | $151,204,205 | 7 | 2,382 |
| 7. Marry Me | $1,850,000 | $20,213,685 | 6 | 3,110 |
| 8. Studio 666* | $1,580,000 | $1,580,000 | Row 7 - Cell 3 | 2,306 |
| 9. Cyrano | $1,400,101 | $1,400,101 | Row 8 - Cell 3 | 797 |
| 10. Scream | $1,345,000 | $79,220,786 | 8 | 1,566 |
Uncharted Drops Less Than 50 Percent As It Takes Its Second Box Office Crown
Among the many box office issues that the industry has faced since theaters reopened last year, one of the most prominent has been audience retention following a movie's big opening weekend. This has been primarily an issue for releases that have gone with hybrid distribution models – debuting on the big screen and on streaming services simultaneously – but a number of other significant titles have dealt with it as well (two recent examples being Jeff Tremaine's Jackass Forever, which dropped 65 percent in its second weekend, and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet's Scream, which fell 59 percent).
Uncharted, not unlike adventurer protagonist Nathan Drake, successfully evaded that peril with its performance this weekend. The video game blockbuster exceeded expectations last week when it banked $44 million in domestic ticket sales – which was $17 million more than estimates predicted – and the $23.3 million earned since Friday means that it only dipped 47 percent.
With that big influx, the movie has now surpassed Scream as the biggest movie released domestically in 2022 thus far – having now made $83.4 million next to the horror sequel's $79.2 million.
It's not just here at home that Uncharted has been rocking, however, as it's also now the biggest North American release of the year on the international stage as well (though not the overall number one. Presently ranked fourth overall worldwide, the blockbuster has brought in an additional $87.8 million from overseas markets thus far, bringing its global total $171.2 million.
What's a bit tricky, however, is that the film isn't quite the massive hit that Sony wants it to be just yet – though they certainly can be happy about Uncharted's performance thus far. According to The Numbers, the jungle adventure feature was made with a reported $120 million budget, and not only does that not include marketing and publicity costs, it also doesn't account for the money that was spent in the project's development. Fans will probably not soon forget that it took a decade to get this movie off the ground, and that process has its own expenses.
Clearly Uncharted benefitted from not having to go up against another new blockbuster in its sophomore weekend, and it's a good thing that it made hay while the sun shines, because a dark night is rolling in (sorry). After a couple of COVID-19-related delays, Matt Reeves' The Batman will be hitting theaters on Friday, at while doing so it will violently shove the video game movie out of the spotlight.
The DC Comics film is expected to be only the second movie since March 2020 to open over $100 million – and the amount of cinematic attention left for Uncharted will certainly be a subject of discussion in next week's box office column.
Channing Tatum's Dog Pulls Off Its Own Neat Trick In Its Second Weekend
Of course, Uncharted wasn't the only movie that benefitted from the major studios deciding to just skip the last weekend of February. The same can be said for Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin's Dog, which also pulled off the rare modern feat of a successful second Friday-to-Sunday. In fact, positive buzz has resulted in the animal-friendly feature doing even better than the video game adaptation in the audience retention department.
Dog also defied prognosticators when it debuted on February 18, making nearly $15 million when the final numbers came in, and this weekend its impressive run continued. The $10.1 million earned in the last three days is only 32 percent less than what it brought in last week, and that's pretty damn awesome.
The positive buzz surrounding the film – a road trip that pairs Channing Tatum with a Belgian Malinois – has surely been a contributing factor to its continued box office success. Survey grades from CinemaScore saw the movie earn an "A-" (better than Uncharted's "B+"), and Rotten Tomatoes has certified the film as Fresh. It too will surely be blown backwards down the box office rankings with the arrival of the tsunami wave that is The Batman, but it's possible that this is a movie we see lingering in the Top 10 for a while.
Studio 666 And The Wide Release Of Cyrano Don't Go Quite As Planned
At this point we should probably mention the big bummer of the weekend: Friday did see the release of one new movie in wide release, but I'm sticking by my earlier statement regarding a lack of competition for Uncharted and Dog, as the film failed to make much of an impression at all. The title in question is BJ McDonnell's Studio 666, which played in over 2,000 locations, and debuted in eighth place with a $1.6 million take.
That amounts to only $685 per theater, and while it's hard to imagine that the horror comedy starring the Foo Fighters cost a great deal to produce, that's a hard flop that one has to wince at.
Joe Wright's Cyrano had a much better theater average ($1,757), but it also only played in 797 locations following its award-qualifying release at the end of 2021. As a result, it only made $1.4 million, which was enough for it to take ninth place. The Peter Dinklage-led film has certainly earned quite a lot of acclaim, and has been nominated for Best Achievement in Costume Design at the Academy Awards, so where things go from here is a curiosity.
Looking ahead, The Batman will unquestionably make a major splash when it arrives in theaters everywhere on Friday... but how big a splash are we talking? It isn't expected to match the record-shattering performance of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but the Caped Crusader has been a dominating box office force for 33 years now, and there isn't any expectation that this film will change the course of history.
You'll be able to find the numbers when they are reported here on CinemaBlend next Sunday, and you can get a look at what's ahead in the calendar year by heading over to our 2022 Movie Release Schedule.
