Argylle was projected to make more at the box office than it did, but it still managed to take the number one spot.
Argylle’s Tepid Opening
As per Box Office Mojo, While Argylle was set to make $20-$30 million on its opening weekend, it only made $18 million. Considering that projected figures don’t account for walk-in theatergoers who just see the movie with no pre-ordered tickets, that means that Argylle likely had roughly $15 million in pre-sales. Which is shy of the expected amount. The movie cost $200 million to produce, making it one of the biggest misfires of the year for Universal, or any studio for that matter.
Director Matthew Vaughn has indicated that this is supposed to be the first movie in an intended trilogy. However, unless Apple; who has seen some box office success with both Killers Of The Flower Moon and Napoleon, can see past the mounting loss that this film is set to make, it’s likely even with Apple’s deep pockets that they’re not going to greenlight any sequels.
So why did the movie get such a low box office turnout? As the first new movie in some time, it was primed to make a decent amount. However, generally, low review scores undoubtedly lowered many people’s expectations. The movie currently is at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Rest Of The Box Office
The faith-based TV series, The Chosen, released three episodes of their upcoming fourth season in theatres ahead of its release and it made $6 million in the second place spot. The show has been putting its premieres and finales in theatres now to a somewhat tepid response. The Season 3 finale earned $3.6 million back in February 2023. However, the show is building more and more of a crowd in theatres. The distributor will be releasing batches of episodes in theatres ahead of its streaming release throughout February and March. So it’s likely we may see the show continue to putter along at the box office.
Everything else is holdovers from the last couple of months, with The Beekeeper in third with $5.3 million. Wonka is in fourth with $4.8 million. Finally, Migration is in fifth with $4.1 million.
Next Weekend
The big release next weekend is Lisa Frankenstein. The movie is debuting during Superbowl weekend which historically has limited the box office potential of a film. In years past movies have never debuted to more than $13 million, and this was before the pandemic and other issues which have limited box office numbers.
Lisa Frankenstein features Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse, two actors who are popular with the Gen Z crowd. The movie runs counter to the Superbowl and a female, Gen-Z-focused film could find some success that weekend. It’s looking like it will make $9-$14 million and likely will be in second place unless Argylle sees a significant drop-off, which is entirely possible.
As always we’ll find out next week!
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