by Nathaniel R
| Weekend Box Office February 11th-13th 🔺 = new or expanding |
|
| OVER 800 SCREENS | UNDER 800 SCREENS |
 DEATH ON THE NILE |
 WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD |
| 1 🔺 DEATH ON THE NILE $12.8 |
1 🔺 WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD $255k (cum. $451k) |
| 2 JACKASS FOREVER $8 (cum. $37.4) | 2 WEST SIDE STORY $235k (cum. $37.2) |
| 3 🔺 MARRY ME $8 new | 3 🔺 DRIVE MY CAR $192k (cum. $1.2) |
| 4 SPIDER-MAN NO WAY HOME $7.1 (cum. $759) | 4 WOLF AND THE LION $181k (cum. $1.0) |
|
5 BLACKLIGHT $3.6 new |
5 PARALLEL MOTHERS $163k (cum. $1.5) |
| 6 SING 2 $2.9 (cum. $143.3) | 6.ENCANTO $124k (cum. $94.3) |
| 7 MOONFALL $2.8 (cum. $15.1) | 7 THE 355 $100k (cum. $14.4) |
| 8 SCREAM $2.8 (cum. $73.1) | 8 NIGHTMARE ALLEY $85 (cum. $11) |
| 9 🔺 LICORICE PIZZA $922k (cum. $13.9) | 9 HOUSE OF GUCCI $71k (cum. $53.6) |
| 10 THE KINGS MAN $433k (cum. $36.7) | 10 WHO WE ARE: A CHRONICLE OF RACISM $15k (cum. $145k) |
All star mystery Death on the Nile struggled in relation to its predecessor Murder on the Orient Express on its opening weekend and the new romantic comedy Marry Me also didn't light the world on fire. But while Jackass Forever took a typical big dip on weekend two it's still been a success. Belfast and Licorice Pizza were the Best Picture nominees that tried hardest to capitalize on their new Oscar nominations by adding hundreds or even a thousand screens but Belfast didn't manage to make the top ten...
It sits at $7.9 domestic gross. While a reliable crowdpleaser at festivals it never quite broke out with traditional moviegoers though $8 million isn't terrible for a prestige picture in the terrible box office climate post-COVID...
Meanwhile in limited release, freshly Oscar-nominated Worst Person in the World had the weekend's best per-screen average. It's already one of the biggest Norwegian hits ever at the US box office (they usually top out around $100-200k. Norway's last Oscar nominee was 10 years ago with Kon-Tiki (based on a very famous story) and it managed $1.5 million in its run (in a healthier time for arthouse fare). Still, nearly half a million in just two weeks for a Norwegian film without bankable stars is mighty impressive. In fact it will surpass the domestic gross of Joachim Trier's dazzling debut Reprise ($554k in the US in 2008) pretty soon. Hopefully it will have legs.
Speaking of legs though Drive My Car has been building and adding screens, they're cutting it off just as it is taking off! It was up 91% this weekend (!!!) but it'll be on HBOMax beginning March 2nd so unfortunately we won't be able to see how far they could have taken it. Still $1.2 million domestic (when arthouse audiences really haven't come back to regular moviegoing) and the 2nd biggest release of all time for a tiny distributor is amazing.
So the Oscar nominations helped the two highest profile international feature nominees build awareness but didn't do much for any of the other films. Parallel Mothers even lost half of its screens (though its gross percentage didn't drop much meaning the Oscar nominations helped a little.)