Box office: January ends with possible ‘Beekeeper’ shake-up as Oscar nominees move into top 10

This weekend looked to be in danger of being an exact replica of last weekend, if not for a number of Oscar nominees receiving expansions, and a possible shake-up in first place. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Based on Sunday morning estimates, the biggest shocker was MGM putting Jason Statham‘s action-thriller “The Beekeeper” ahead of Paramount’s musical-comedy “Mean Girls” with $7.4 million to $7.3 million to win first place. This will be an interesting race to check back with on Monday, since that’s a negligible amount of just $100,000 between the two movies, a number that could change once actual box office is reported.

Reported estimates have “The Beekeeper” dropping just 14% from last weekend compared to “Mean Girls” being down 37%, although “Mean Girls” was ahead (by just $80,000) on Friday. It’s hard to believe a movie targeted more towards older guys might do better business over the weekend, so there may be some shenanigans afoot. I guess we’ll see on Monday. “Mean Girls” has grossed $60.8 million domestically so far, and it added another $4.3 million in 22 overseas territories to bring its global total to $83.4 million.

The Timothée Chalamet musical, “Wonka,” remained in third place with an estimated $5.9 million, down 12%, as it brought its domestic total to $195.7 million. At this point, it looks very likely to hit the $200 million mark domestically sometime in the next week.

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The animated “Migration” became only the third holiday release to cross the $100 million mark with another $5.2 million over the weekend – down just 6% from last weekend –  to keep it in fourth place with $101.3 million.

It remained ahead of the Sydney Sweeney–Glen Powell rom-com “Anyone But You,” which took fifth place with an estimated $4.8 million (down 11%) and $71.2 million just in North America. The movie is killing it overseas with another $14.2 million this weekend to bring its global total to $126.6 million.

The Hindi air force thriller “Fighter” from Siddharth Anand, director of the 2023 hit “Pathaan,” opened in 662 theaters on Thursday, and after making $1.8 million its opening day, it is reported to have made an estimated $3.7 million over the weekend to open in sixth place.

After receiving 11 Oscar nominations on Tuesday, Searchlight Studios expanded Yorgos Lanthimos‘ “Poor Things,” starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo – each receiving their fourth Oscar nomination as actors, with Stone also nominated for producing the film –  into 2,260 theaters, its widest presence to date. That was enough for it to move into seventh place with an estimated $3 million and $24.8 million grossed domestically. It added another $10 million internationally this weekend, for a global total of $51.1 million.

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Similarly, MGM used the five Oscar nominations awarded to Cord Jefferson‘s popular satire, “American Fiction,” starring Oscar-nominee Jeffrey Wright, to expand it into 1,702 theaters, where it finally broke into the top 10 to take eight place with $2.9 million. It has grossed $11.8 million domestically.

According to WB estimates, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” took ninth place with $2.8 million (down 23%) to bring its domestic total to $118.1 million, although there are four movies reported to make between $2.5 million and $3 million in the lower half of the top 10, so their respective placements could change come Monday.

“Godzilla Minus One” has been an enormous hit for Toho International, and on Friday, it was re-expanded into 2,021 theaters with a special “Minus Color” black-and-white release. That helped boost interest for the movie that received a single Oscar nomination for visual effects, so that it brought in another $2.6 million over the weekend to reenter the top 10 with $55 million grossed domestically.

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Ava DuVernay‘s “Origin” expanded nationwide into 664 theaters, but with zero Oscar nominations, even for its star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, it ended up well outside the top 10 with just $1.5 million, averaging $2,200 per theater.

Another movie that received five Oscar nominations was Jonathan Glazer‘s The Zone of Interest, which A24 expanded into 317 theaters where it took in $1.1 million, to bring its total to $3 million.

Otherwise, Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer,” Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie,” and Alexander Payne‘s “The Holdovers” all received significant re-releases this weekend, although none of them brought in significant new business, having already been available via digital, streaming and home entertainment.

Most players still had “Mean Girls” as #1 in this weekend’s box office game, and only three players had “The Beekeeper” winning the weekend. Since I’m dubious of MGM’s Sunday reporting, we probably will need to wait and see which one actually wins once actual box office is reported. Only 10 players had “Mean Girls” taking second place, with most having “Anyone But You” taking fourth and “Migration” in fifth place.

On the other hand, there were five perfect scores for the Jan 19 game, with “Garney” scoring the most points with 30.923. Congrats to them!

We’ll be back to our normal Wednesday weekend preview this week with Matthew Vaughn‘s new ensemble action-comedy, “Argylle,” and the first installment of episodes from “The Chosen Season 4.” Also, look for our monthly preview for February sometime this week, as well.

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