Barely anybody went to the movies this weekend
The box office tends to grind to a halt ahead of the Super Bowl, but ticket sales this weekend took an even bigger hit than usual.
Glass topped the box office for the third weekend in a row, but even M. Night Shyamalan's film only made $9.5 million, per Box Office Mojo. In second place was The Upside, the comedy starring Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston, which made $8.8 million. The overall revenue generated among all the movies was the lowest for a Super Bowl weekend in 19 years, marking a 21 percent drop from last year's Super Bowl weekend, Deadline reports. In fact, it was the lowest-grossing weekend the box office has seen since August 2017.
The only major new release this weekend was Miss Bala, an action-thriller film starring Gina Rodriguez, but that opened to a mere $6.7 million. To be fair to Sony, the project likely won't be a complete financial catastrophe considering the budget was reportedly just $15 million, and the studio hopes it will fare better in coming weeks, Variety reports. But considering the poor reception — the film earned a 25 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes — that seems unlikely.
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This box office lull won't last too long, though, as the highly-anticipated sequel The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is set to open on Feb. 8.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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