Box Office Breakdown for Weekend of 2/2/25
What’s up, Geeks + Gamers? It’s ODIN!
Universal’s Dog Man Greatly Exceeds Projections
With the final weekend of January out of the way, box office business should incrementally improve as we get closer to the summer movie season. It wouldn’t be modern Hollywood and theatrical distribution, however, without one last surprise from the month where movies go to die in the new film Dog Man. Having never heard of this character myself and with even the so-called box office experts not giving it much of a chance, the new DreamWorks Animation movie was able to defy the odds and make roughly $36,000,000 in its domestic opening and about $40,592,000 globally as of the writing of this article. Even over on Criticless, only one person has actually reviewed the movie as of right now, and though he gave it a very high 90% “Most Excellent” score, it is apparent that the audience doesn’t seem to have much interest in the property. Based on these numbers, there is clearly positive word-of-mouth that is helping Dog Man, which, based on its very modest $40 million budget, is on track for what could be a fairly profitable run for the studios involved. We will have a much better idea of whether the film will make any money back after the week-2 numbers drop next Sunday. All I can say for now is, well done, and things are looking pretty good!
According to the-numbers.com, the top 5 this weekend domestically were:
- Dog Man ($36 million as a new release)
- Companion ($9.5 million as a new release)
- Mufasa: The Lion King (29% drop in 7th weekend)
- One of Them Days (25% drop in 3rd weekend)
- Flight Risk (52% drop in 2nd weekend)
Flight Risk Falls Too Much to Make Profit Likely
Initially, there was some reporting that the budget for Flight Risk might have been around $10-$15 million, and if that were still the case, we would be having a different conversation. With the revelation that the movie actually cost a still quite low $25 million to make before any marketing costs are accounted for, decent word-of-mouth is clearly not going to be enough to push the film over the finish line. Having now made $25,101,784 after two weekends, we can now project that the mediocre Mel Gibson flick will make between $35,859,691 and $50,203,568 worldwide by the end of its run. This means we can expect the film to lose between -$10 million and -$25 million. Now, if the movie performs towards the larger end of that projection, one could argue that the studio could make some money back on streaming, physical media, or other potential revenue streams through licensing. That being said, you never want a movie to be in the red theatrically. Though I personally found Flight Risk quite entertaining and gave it a “Rad” score, the good people over at Criticless are more divided on the film, giving it a 56% “Decent” score in aggregate.
Angel Studios’ Brave the Dark Fails to Find Audience as Presence Closes in on Profits
Angel Studios has struggled quite a bit to find its footing ever since the behemoth that was Sound of Freedom took the summer box office by storm a couple of years ago. Since then, they have had a consistent audience that only accounts for about $5 million in actual box office value. When it comes to their latest film, Brave the Dark, it seems that though audiences seeing the movie overall find much to praise about it (especially on Criticless), there are just not enough people interested in the film for profit to be in the cards. Having made only $3,898,508 after two weeks, I project that Brave the Dark will only make between $5,569,297-$7,797,016 by the end of its run, which will result in roughly $5-$10 million in losses depending on whether the film cost either $5 million or $10 million.
Though it is clear that even lower-budgeted movies are struggling to make their money back at the box office, one film has garnered enough interest with one of the smallest budgets I have seen from a director of this caliber. Costing only about $2 million, Presence by Steven Soderbergh has made roughly $6,574,024 worldwide and is now projected to earn between $9-$13 million by the end of its run, with roughly $2-$6 million in net profits. Though those are not big numbers, a movie of any size making its money back before leaving theaters would be more than enough to celebrate with the current state of the box office. For those wondering whether Presence is worth seeing, the people of Criticless seem to be enjoying it quite a bit overall.
Check out my latest box office video HERE!
If you want further analysis on these or any other films, check out the full charting I do over at my website. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and, as always, God bless!
(If you ever want further insight into my methodology, see my previous articles HERE and HERE and the RCC method I use to break down movies internationally HERE.)
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If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
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