The big box office story this weekend might not even be that “The Devil Wears Prada 2” ($41M) has beaten “Mortal Kombat 2” ($38M) and will remain the top movie for the second weekend in a row. ‘Prada 2’ sits now at $433M globally.
No — rather, it’s yet again “Michael,” now in its third frame and holding strong despite losing IMAX screens. It’s going to earn $36.5M this weekend, a drop of just 33%. Its domestic box office tally now stands at $240M after 17 days, with $577M worldwide.
The hold itself is impressive. “Michael” is still earning strong daily numbers deep into its run, with drops that are small compared to typical box office patterns for big openers. There’s a lot of surprise that a film with such a massive debut is still stabilizing instead of collapsing — evidence of strong word-of-mouth.
Spurred by an incredible international tally, and a huge upcoming rollout in Japan, the $1 billion mark is certainly not out of the question for “Michael,” which would make it the first 2026 movie to pass that milestone. Not even ‘Super Marios Galaxy Movie’ ($940M) might reach it. Who’da thunk it? Michael Jackson might be a bigger IP than ‘Super Mario’ — a sequel is inevitably going to happen.
Amazon/MGM scored a strong debut this weekend with “Sheep Detectives,” which is heading toward a $15.9M opening weekend. That puts the family comedy ahead of last year’s “Paddington in Peru,” which debuted to $12.7M. Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures’ “Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard & Soft” is now projected to earn about $7.4M for the weekend.
Meanwhile, with all these hits currently playing in theaters, we should probably soon write an obituary for Andy Serkis’ “Animal Farm,” which, by all accounts, has turned into a total disaster for both the filmmaker and Angel Studios.
That $35M budget — not especially high for an animated film — is starting to look deadly for a movie that opened last weekend with $3.3M and has now dropped 84% in its second frame to just $584K. It got sent to the slaughterhouse by audiences, who joined critics in panning the film: a “C-” CinemaScore and a 56% Rotten Tomatoes audience score — unusually low marks for an animated release.
Are we supposed to believe Serkis is the man tapped to direct and reignite “Lord of the Rings” for Warner Bros./New Line? By all accounts, he’s being handed a $200M budget to tell a brand-new story featuring de-aged versions of Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen. With “Animal Farm,” Serkis has now directed four films, all of them met with mixed reception: “Breathe,” “Mowgli,” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” being the others. Best of luck to all involved.