Nobody is crying for “M3GAN” though, as the Blumhouse horror hit, in its third weekend, continued to bring out horror fans in droves. It dropped a reasonable 46.5% to bring its domestic total to $73.2 million, all against a mere $12 million budget. Couple that with a growing $51.3 million overseas and this killer doll has taken in $124.6 million so far. So yeah, that’s why the sequel, “M3GAN 2.0,” is already on the fast track at Universal. Original horror continues to do its thing! Case in point, word-of-mouth hit “Skinamarink” added $420,000, bringing it close to $1.5 million. Or, to put it another way, 100 times its $15,000 budget.
Even though the top three were dominated by weeks-old releases, the weekend’s big newcomer, Sony’s thriller “Missing” (read our review here), still did quite well for itself. The sequel of sorts to the ultra-low-budget 2018 film “Searching” earned $9.3 million, taking the number four spot. The great news here is that the film only cost $7 million to produce so, even with marketing, this one figures to do well for Sony as it rolls out internationally and churns along domestically in the coming weeks.
Further encouraging for 2023’s prospect was “A Man Called Otto,” with the Tom Hanks flick dropping less than 30% to round out the top five with $9 million. It has, thus far, earned $55.3 million worldwide and could/should be able to leg out to $100 million at this rate. Rather sadly, on the other end, Oscar hopeful “The Son,” starring Hugh Jackman, tanked in its debut. It opened in 554 theaters, taking in a mere $239,855. Its per-screen average was a miserable $432. Check out the full list of the top 10 movies at the box office this past weekend below.
Top 10 movies at the box office, January 20-22, 2023:
1. “Avatar: The Way of Water: – $20 million
2. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” – $11.5 million
3. “M3GAN” – $9.8 million
4. “Missing” – $9.3 million
5. “A Man Called Otto” – $9 million
6. “Plane” – $5.25 million
7. “House Party” – $1.77 million
8. “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” – $1.45 million
9. “The Whale” – $1.28 million
10. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” – $1.25 million