‘Sing 2’ and ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ both topped $190 million worldwide while ‘Encanto’ opened with just $3.2 million in China.
There’s frankly little good news this weekend that doesn’t explicitly revolve around Spider-Man: No Way Home ($33 million domestic and $97 million worldwide for a new $669 million domestic/$1.53 billion worldwide cume). The only wide release of the weekend was Simon Kinberg’s The 355. The ensemble action movie, starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger and Fan Bingbing, earned just $4.8 million in its domestic debut. To be fair, this was a long-delayed (from last January) flick with zero buzz and bad reviews. Moreover, in just the last two years, partially due to the pandemic, we’ve seen a slew of female-centric action movies debuting on VOD or streaming. Why would moviegoers drive to theaters for The 355 when they can watch Karen Gillan’s Gunpowder Milkshake (which was supposed to be in theaters), Chastain’s Ava (which had a limited release before breaking out on VOD), Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Kate and Kate Beckinsale’s Jolt (along with Maggie Q.’s theatrical but now on VOD The Protégé) at home? The spy flick will presumably be available on PVOD in about 2.5 weeks. I imagine the casually curious are just waiting. No, this isn’t really about Covid. In January 2020, in the before-times, Blake Lively’s (far superior) The Rhythm Section had the worst pre-Covid opening ever for a wide release, with just $2.7 million. The perpetually online are quite vocal about wanting a lady James Bond but neither they nor hardly anyone else tend to show up when Hollywood offers up a new female-led spy/action movie. Even Charlize Theron’s dynamite Atomic Blonde scraped by with $100 million worldwide on a $30 million budget months before Kingsman: The Golden Circle topped $400 million global. Nonetheless, $4.8 million is better than The Protégé’s $2.9 million opening and above Liam Neeson’s The Marksman ($3.1 million), Honest Thief ($4 million) and Russell Crowe’s Unhinged ($4 million, or $4.
